Harvest High School for the Gifted
by xXLittle Rose AngelXx
Summary: A fantasy Harvest Moon fanfic. Jack, Jill and Claire Farman were not normal children. They were magically gifted and going to a magically gifted school, Harvest High. They have no idea of the adventures that await them...
1. Welcome to Harvest High

**Harvest High – School for the Gifted**

**Chapter 1 **

**Welcome to Harvest High **

The twins Jack and Jill, and I, their cousin, Claire, had known we were different since we were very young. We realised that we could do things that normal kids could not do. We realised they were magically gifted.

Jack was a telekinetic. He discovered this when he threw a hissy-fit when he was about six years old and accidentally broke a glass just by staring at it. With a little bit of practice he discovered he was able to move objects just by looking at them.

Jill could control plant life. When she had found out that her twin brother was gifted, she had become determined to find out what her gift was as well. Not long after, she discovered that she could speed up and slow down the growth of plants, or could just make plants appear out of nowhere.

I was a year younger than my cousins, and was the first to discover my power but the last to realise it was actually a power. I could communicate with animals using my mind, or speaking. I had always thought this was normal, and that everyone could speak to animals like I could. But when Jack and Jill caught me barking to our dog, and the dog barking back, they told me that this wasn't normal and that I was gifted, like them

The three of us found out about a school known as Harvest High – a high school for gifted people, just like us. We sent in our applications, hoping to be accepted. I was fifteen years old and my cousins were sixteen when we received a letter from the school.

"WE GOT IN! WE GOT IN! WE GOT IN!" Jill ran into the lounge room, waving a white piece of paper around above her head. I jumped up immediately, and Jack ran in from the kitchen. We practically tackled Jill to get the letter off her and read it.

_To the Farman children, _

_I am pleased to inform you that there are places for you in Harvest High. You will find attached three packs including all of your books and stationary for the school year. Please pack your bags and be ready to leave for the school by sunrise tomorrow. We look forward to seeing you._

_Sincerely,_

_Thomas Maynor _

_Headmaster of Harvest High _

"Come on!" said Jill. "Let's go pack our bags!" The brunette jumped to her feet.

"How do you think we're going to get there?" asked Jack as he stood up.

"Who cares?" said Jill. "Come on!"

We were all too excited to sleep that night.

At six am the next morning, the doorbell rang, and the three of us charged downstairs faster than we had ever run before. We didn't know what to expect to be taking us to the school, but we didn't expect to see nothing but a green-haired teenage girl.

"Hello Farman children," she said; her voice gentle and melodic.

"Hi…" said Jill slowly.

"I'm Annona Goddess. I'm a senior student and I'm here to take you to Harvest High."

Jack peered behind the girl. "So do you have a car or something?"

Annona laughed; her laugh like tinkling bells. "No, child, I have something much better. Go get your bags."

We did as we were told and brought our bags downstairs.

"Now link hands and make sure you're holding onto your bags as well."

We were confused as to why we were doing this, but we obeyed nonetheless. She gently took Jack's hand. "Whatever you do," she said. "Don't let go." She then muttered something in a language I didn't understand, and I saw a bright white light.

I squeezed my eyes shut tight against the light, and I felt Jill squeeze my hand. I suddenly felt weightless, like I was floating. I couldn't feel the ground beneath my feet. I wanted to open my eyes to see where I was, but even through my eyelids I could tell it was way too bright.

_Thump!_ My feet hit the ground and the light vanished. I opened my eyes and looked around. We were standing outside a large pair of golden gates. I wondered if I had died and gone to heaven. Behind the gates was a large brick building and I saw a lot of people, some my age and some older, playing outside.

"Farman children," said Annona, pushed open the gates. "Welcome to Harvest High."

I felt like a kid in a candy store as I walked through the gates and towards the building behind Annona. Jill's violet eyes were wide as she looked at everything in the school. Jack had a huge smile on his face.

Annona led us into the building and turned to face us. She held out her hand, palm up, and out of nowhere three sheets of paper appeared in her hand. She smiled when she saw our looks of amazement and handed us a piece of paper each.

"This has your dorm number, your schedule and a map of the school," she said. "You can take your stuff to your dorm room and explore the school for a while, until you hear the bell. Then you must head to the main hall for breakfast and the opening assembly. Until then, welcome to Harvest High." She then clapped her hands twice and in a flash of white light she was gone.

"Woah…" said Jill, staring at the place that Annona had been. "I want to do that!"

Jack laughed at his sister, and then glanced at his map. "Boy's dorms are on the opposite side of the school to girl's dorms," he noted. "So I'll see you two at breakfast." He waved and turned to head off to his dorm. Jill and I walked off in the other direction.

Jill's dorm was two doors down from mine. She dragged her bag down the hall and went into her dorm. I turned to my door, took a deep breath, and pushed it open.

I heard a squeal, saw a flash of pink and the next thing I knew I was on the ground with some random girl on top of me.

"MARY! MARY! MARY!" I heard a high-pitched voice say. "Look! We have a new roommate! Look! Mary! Come look!"

"Gerrofomee," I mumbled from underneath the girl.

"What?"

"Get off of me," I repeated.

"Oh, sorry," said the girl, and she climbed off. I sat up and looked at her. She had wavy candy-pink hair and red-brown eyes, and had a huge smile on her face.

"Hi! I'm Popuri!" she said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Claire," I said.

Another girl walked over to me and held out her hand. She had brown eyes and glasses, and raven black hair, tied back in a long braid. I took her hand and stood up.

"I'm Mary," she said with a shy smile.

"It's nice to meet you," I said. I turned around and saw Popuri dragging my bag inside. "Wow, Claire," she panted. "This weighs a tonne!"

I frowned as I helped her drag it in. I hadn't noticed until she mentioned it, but my clothes and books shouldn't have weighed that much. I knelt down and opened the bag, only to be tackled by a scruffy brown puppy.

_Sammie! _I exclaimed in my mind. _What are you doing in there? _

_ Coming to the school with you, clearly, _the dog replied in her mind.

_I thought I told you to stay at home!_

_ Since when do I do as I'm told? _

Popuri and Mary looked between me and the dog. Popuri frowned in confusion, but Mary seemed to have worked it out.

"You communicate with animals!" she exclaimed.

I nodded. "Yes, that's me, the animal-girl. And this is Sammie, my dog who is going to be in a lot of trouble for coming with me here."

Sammie barked.

"Aww, she's so cute!" said Popuri, kneeling down to give her a scratch behind the ear. Sammie leaned into Popuri's hands.

"So what can you guys do?" I asked.

"I'm a dreamer," said Mary. "I can visit people's dreams and I can make parts of their dreams become reality."

"And check out what I can do," said Popuri, standing up. Suddenly, there were three more copies of her standing next to her.

"I'm Popuri!" said one.

"No, I'M Popuri," said another.

"No, you're both wrong," said the last. "I'M Popuri."

This resulted in a high pitched argument until Popuri, the _real _Popuri, made them disappear.

_More hyper-active girls, _I thought. _Fun! _

_Don't you like her? _Sammie's voice entered my mind.

_She's sweet, but a little…well…crazy._

"I can also do this!" Popuri unknowingly interrupted my conversation with Sammie. She closed her eyes and her pink hair suddenly turned purple. I raised my eyebrows. She grinned and it returned to its unnatural pink colour.

"I can change my hair to any colour I want," she said. "And," she added. "This pink is natural."

Well, I didn't believe her, but I didn't tell her that.

I heard a loud ringing sound, and Sammie tensed up and barked.

"That's the bell!" said Popuri. "To breakfast we go!" She thrust a fist into the air and ran out the door.

Mary giggled a little at Popuri. "Are you coming?" she asked me.

"Of course," I said. I scooped up my cheeky little dog, deciding that it was pointless to hide someone as noisy as her in my room, and that she'd want food anyway. Surely they'd understand, considering I was an animal communicator and all. Mary held the door open and I walked out, and she walked with me to the main hall.

There were two long tables either side of the hall covered in many different dishes of food. Sammie wagged her tail when she saw the food.

"Claire!" I heard someone call, and I looked over to see Jack and Jill waving me over.

"Come sit with me?" I asked Mary. She smiled and nodded. I led her over to my cousins and we sat down beside them.

"Mary, these are my cousins, Jack and Jill," I introduced. "Jack, Jill, this is Mary, my roommate."

Mary waved shyly. "Hello."

"Nice to meet ya!" said Jill.

Jack was eyeing the dog in my lap. "I thought I told you not to take her."

"It's not my fault," I said defensively. "She hid in my suitcase."

Jill broke into a fit of laughter. "I always knew she was a little genius."

Friendly chatter filled the hall until a familiar green-haired girl stepped up and clapped her hands. "Silence, please!" Her melodic voice echoed through the hall, and the chatter died down.

"Hello, and welcome to a new year at Harvest High," she said with a smile. "I'm Annona Goddess; this year's Head Girl. I'd like to introduce Headmaster Maynor.

A short, plump man waddled up to Annona, and the girl took a seat. He wore a red suit and had a brown moustache. He coughed to clear his throat.

"WELCOME!" he said. "I am aware that the food sitting in front of you looks very appetising at the moment, so I'll cut straight to the rules, shall I?"

The rules were fairly straight forward. No boys in the girl's dorms and vice versa, no using your powers for violence, etc.

"And at last, we may eat!"

The friendly chatter returned as the students put food on their plates and began eating. I had a feeling it was going to be a good year.


	2. Power Class

First things first: Please, please, please forgive me for taking ever so long to update. School decided to pile up homework and assignments and exam revision, and the writer's block I've been having almost all term did nothing to help. But, at last, I have found time to update and have gotten rid of my writer's block so that I was able to do so.

**Review Replies**

Karen Kotaro: Thanks for the review, and congratulations on being the first reviewer. Here is the update!

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Crystall-Green: I'm glad you like the idea as well. Thanks for reviewing and enjoy chapter two.

MewZeairu: Amazing? I'm glad you think so. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Harvest Moon, nor do I have magic powers.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**Power Class**

_I want food._

Sammie's voice entered my mind. The dog was still sitting on my lap, and I knew, due to my powers, that it was taking all her will-power not to jump up onto the table and lick every plate clean.

_You always want food, _I responded in my mind, putting the dog on the ground. I picked up a spare plate and looked around the table, wondering what I could give her. It was all human food, obviously.

Sammie barked impatiently, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. It all went quiet for a few seconds, and whispers could be heard around the room.

"What is a dog doing there?"

"Is it a stray?"

"I didn't know the school allowed pets."

"Excuse me." This voice I recognised as the melodic voice of that head girl, Annona. _Shoot, _I thought. _Sam, now you're going to get me into heaps of trouble. _I slowly turned around. The green-haired girl stood beside me, arms crossed.

"Do you know this dog, Miss Farman?" I nodded, and she continued. "What is it doing here?"

"_She_," I emphasised, not liking the fact that she had just called my dog, who was like a best friend to me, an 'it'. "She kind of followed me here… I was hoping you would let her stay…"

"The school has a no pet policy," she said sternly. Sammie looked up at me apologetically and sadly, telling me she didn't want to go.

"That policy doesn't apply here," said another voice. The short, plump headmaster waddled up behind Annona. "Miss Farman is an animal communicator, Annona."

"She is?" repeated the head girl. "Oh my, I am sorry. I didn't realise."

I breathed a sigh of relief. _Thank goodness…_

Headmaster Maynor turned to me. "Your dog is as welcome to stay here as you are, Miss Farman, as long as she doesn't become a threat to the other students and their safety here."

"Of course," I said, nodding. "Don't worry."

"Very well," said the headmaster. "Carry on." He turned and waddled away, and Annona looked at me.

"I am very sorry, Miss Farman. I didn't realise. Here, let me…" She took the plate I was holding, and waved her hand over it. It glowed for a second, and when the light disappeared, the plate was filled with food for Sammie. The dog wagged her tail excitedly and barked.

"She says thank you," I translated as Annona put the plate on the ground for Sammie. Sammie wagged her tail and licked Annona's hand affectionately.

"Uh, she's very welcome…" said Annona, looking down at her hand with a look of disgust and wiping it on her uniform.

Jack, Jill and I had received the uniforms in our packs, but we hadn't put them on yet. The girls' uniforms were a white blouse with the school logo on it and a denim skirt, and the boys' uniforms were a pair of black pants and a white shirt. It was very boring, but thankfully it was only for weekdays. We could wear whatever we liked on weekends.

Annona turned and walked away, and Jack and Jill turned to me. "That was close, Claire."

"I know, but Sammie gets to stay. Isn't that great?"

After breakfast, we returned to our dorms to change into our uniforms and headed off to our first class for the day. I had a class ever-so creatively named _Power Class_, with both Mary and Popuri. Jack and Jill were supposed to be in different classes to me as well, but due to it being the first day of school, all three power classes had been combined.

"Class is in the gym today," said Popuri, grabbing my hand. "Come! I'll take you." The pink-haired girl practically dragged me towards the gymnasium, with Mary following close behind. When we got to the gym and got inside, I was amazed. The gym was three times larger than any gym that I had ever seen. It was empty, except for a large stage, and the other students there.

"This is incredible!" I heard Jill yell. It looked like almost the entire school was here. It wasn't a big school, I had discovered. Not as big as my primary school, anyway.

"Wow…" I breathed.

"Amazing, isn't it, beautiful?" My head whipped around to find the source of the voice, but no one was there. "H-Hello?"

"Over here, princess."

He sounded like he was standing right beside me, but I couldn't see him.

_Is it a ghost? Sammie, is the school haunted?_

Sammie sniffed the ground, and then stopped, and barked. And then, she looked like she was licking the air.

"Ah! Gross! Stop, make it stop!" There was a slight shimmer in the air, and then he, the boy who had been talking to me, was visible. He had long silver hair and pale skin.

"Sammie, stop," I ordered, and Sammie walked back over to me and sat at my feet obediently. I then looked questioningly at the silver haired boy, and he chuckled.

"Call me Phantom Skye."

I raised an eyebrow. "Right…"

"So what's your name, beautiful?"

_Is he trying to flirt with me?_

_I don't know, _responded Sammie. _I don't understand humans._

"Claire Farman. And this is my dog Sammie."

"It's a pleasure, Claire." He took my hand and kissed him. I rolled my eyes, but I could see a group of girls behind him that were looking at me with a look of pure hatred and envy.

Skye straightened up again, and winked at me, before vanishing.

"Invisibility…" I commented. "Nice…"

"I know," I heard him say.

I said nothing for few seconds, and then Sammie sniffed the air. _He's gone._

"Good," I muttered. I hated those types of guys. I hated the whole 'Oh I'm so great, every girl wants me, blah, blah, blah…'

Jack walked over to me. "Who was that?"

"_Phantom _Skye," I answered, emphasising the word 'Phantom' and rolling my eyes. I saw Jack smile with relief. He was my over protective older cousin. As far as he was concerned, I was much, much too young to get a boyfriend and therefore he had to protect me from the, and I quote, 'dangers of the boys out there'.

As far as I was concerned, he just wanted to get a girlfriend before I got a boyfriend.

"Attention all!" A teacher called from the stage. I swear she hadn't been standing there a minute earlier. "Gather in. Come on. Yes, that's right, come around."

The students in the gym gathered around the stage. The teacher introduced herself and told us that one by one we were to come onto the stage and introduce ourselves, and show the school our power. She pointed to one of the girls in the crowd and told her to go first, and stepped off the stage as this girl stepped up.

She was fairly short, with long red hair that was held back in a plait. I heard someone in the crowd yell out "Ranga!" and she glared at them before turning away and looking out at the rest of the crowd.

"I'm Ann Thein," she said. "And I'm a telekinetic."

"She's in my dorm room," Jill whispered to me, and we watched in amazement as the red-head stared at a box on the stage and made it rise into the air using only her mind. "Wow," I breathed, and everyone clapped as she stepped off the stage, and the next student stepped up onto the stage, a boy with blue eyes and blonde hair, and a cap tilted down to cover his face which said 'UMA' on it. What does that mean, anyway?

Jill's eyes were practically love hearts. "He's cute!" she whispered. I rolled my eyes, smirking, but I couldn't help agree. He was really, really cute.

"I'm Gray Smith." He spoke in a sort of loud, understandable mumble, if that made any sense. He stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I manipulate objects with my mind."

He then didn't do anything. Someone in the crowd coughed. "Um, Mr. Smith?" asked the teacher. "Would you like to show us your power?"

Gray sighed and pulled his hands out of his pockets, holding them out in front of him. Out of nowhere, a hammer appeared in his hands. He then stared at it, and it got bigger. The crowd clapped and he jumped off the stage, walking to the back of the crowd. I glanced over my shoulder at him, and saw him tilt his hat down to hide his face again. I smiled to myself. He was cute.

One by one, the students stepped up onto the stage, introduced themselves and demonstrated their power. I stared wide-eyed at everyone's abilities. Powers ranged from hypnotising, to healing, to teleporting, to shape-shifting, to even transforming into a mermaid. This presentation of powers took not only first lesson, but second lesson as well, although we didn't miss much because we were supposed to have a double of _Power Class_. Once it was over, it was time for morning tea before our next class. I walked outside of the gymnasium and to the school's garden, sitting on the green grass beside Sammie. The garden was amazing. The grass was lush and green, trees shaded certain parts of the garden and left other parts in the sun, and there was even a small water fountain. It was simply beautiful.

I was contently munching on my apple when a blonde boy walked up to me. No, not the really cute one with the UMA hat, much to my disappointment, but one that I mistook for a girl at first glance. He had long hair held back with a white headband, blue eyes and glasses. He was just staring at me, in a rather creepy way. I shifted uncomfortably.

"Um, are you okay?"

He shook his head quickly, like you do when you're snapping out of a daydream. "Sorry… I felt like… I needed to go up to you… This is weird… Uhh… Hey. I'm Rick Bellflower."

"Popuri's sister?" I commented as I politely shook his hand. "I'm Claire Farman."

"Oh yeah, the new girl," he said. "It's nice to meet you. I'm sorry about staring at you… I felt like I had a connection with you…"

I thought back to his power, but couldn't remember it. "What's your power?"

"I'm a shape-shifter," he answered, and a light bulb went off in my head.

"That would make sense. I'm an animal communicator and animals are… well, attracted to me. I suppose you have the same animal instincts too. What do you shape-shift into, anyway?"

He stood up, and closed his eyes. He was suddenly surrounded by a wall of white light, and when it died down, there stood…

… a chicken.

_Don't laugh, don't laugh, don't laugh… _I told myself, biting my lip so that a giggle wouldn't escape my throat. "Impressive…" I managed to say. He was surrounded by the wall of white light again and was in his human form again when it died down.

"You really think so?"

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak without laughing. I had nothing against chickens. I love chickens, really. But you have to admit, the fact that he was a shape-shifter and he could shape-shift into a chicken was pretty funny. He walked away, glancing over his shoulder from time to time. Once he was out of sight, I dropped to the ground in a fit of giggles.

_Oh please_, Sammie said into my mind. _Aren't you just so mature, Claire? Although… He certainly looked like a tasty chicken._

This made me laugh harder. I was a vegetarian, but I didn't expect my dog to be. And hey, dogs eat chickens. _Mr. Chicken Shape-Shifter better watch his back while he's in chicken form._

"Uh, excuse me…" I heard someone say, but I was too busy laughing to really pay attention. "Umm, Miss…" the voice said again, and I forced myself to stop laughing and opened my eyes to discover a pair of blue eyes looking down at me.

Gray.

* * *

So, I know it's not the most interesting of chapters but I needed to introduce at least some of the other characters that will be of great importance when it comes to the big plot, which I shall be beginning around chapter four or five. Review please!


	3. Friends

Oh my gosh! Can this be? Has Angel actually updated before driving her readers insane? My friends, the answer is yes. I have actually updated, and only a week later. Are you proud? You should be.

**Review Replies**

Karen Kotaru: Yes, I updated! And now I'm updating again. Hope I made you happy.

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**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harvest Moon.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**Friends **

I'm not sure if I blushed at that point or not. It certainly felt like my cheeks were bright pink, but he didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. Or if he did, he didn't show it.

"Um, are you okay?" he asked, reaching down to me. I took his hand and sat up, and he sat down across from me.

"Yes," I told him. "I'm fine."

"You were rolling on the ground laughing hysterically… You looked like you had gone insane…"

_It's true_, Sammie mentally agreed with him.

_Shut up, _I mentally glared at her playfully, and smiled at Gray. "I was just thinking about something very funny, that's all."

"Care to tell me what it was?"

I chose not to totally embarrass Rick the Chicken, although the thought of this made a giggle escape my throat. _Ricken the Chicken_. Anyway, I chose not to embarrass him and instead I said, "Oh, it was an inside joke. You wouldn't understand it."

"Oh…" He was silent for a moment, and then said, "I'm Gray, by the way."

I already knew this, but I didn't want to seem like a creepy stalker or anything. "Claire," I introduced myself, extending my hand. He shook it.

"Yeah, I know," he said. "You were the animal girl, yes?"

My heart leapt excitedly when he said that he remembered who I was. He remembered my name, which must have meant that I somehow stood out from the crowd. Maybe he thought I was pretty like I thought he was cute, or maybe he liked my powers. Either way, I felt special. "Yep, that's me. And this is Sammie."

Sammie barked in greeting. He smiled and reached out to scratch the back of her neck. _I like him,_ she decided.

_You're such a pushover, Sam, _I thought back.

"It was nice to meet you," he said, tilting his UMA cap down slightly. He nodded to Sammie. "Both of you."

"You too," I said.

"I'll see you around." He stood up, nodding to Sammie and me, and then turned around and walked away.

_Oh my gosh, he is so cute… _I thought, watching him leave. I was absolutely certain that I was blushing now, even if it was only lightly.

If Sammie was human, I knew she would have rolled her eyes. _You're hopeless, Claire, developing a crush on someone on your first day. Tut, tut, tut._

_ It's not a crush! _I thought defensively. _I just think he's cute, that's all._

_ Claire, Claire, Claire… I can read your mind, remember? There's no point in lying to me._

_ Okay, so maybe I have a teeny tiny crush on him… Hey, you can't deny that he's cute!_

_ I'm a dog. I can easily deny that he's cute._

I sighed, and a second later the bell rang to signal the end of morning tea. I stood up and jogged back to my dorm room to gather some books for my next class, _History of Heroes_.

History wasn't my best subject, even at my normal school. To be honest, I hated it. It was just so _boring_. I mean, who cares about what happened in the past? I didn't want to learn about Mr. Big Superhero Guy saving the world, or dying, or whatever it was we were going to learn about… I sighed, picking up a notebook and a pencil case, and heading off to class. The second bell rang while I was still in the corridor.

_Crud, I'm going to be late for my first class! _I thought to myself as I broke into a sprint towards the classroom, Sammie by my side. The dog loved running. She was so full of energy; it was great for her to run when she could.

I skidded to a stop in front of the classroom door and casually walked inside. "Sorry I'm late," I apologised. "I got caught up in the corridor."

The teacher shook his head with disappointment and clicked his tongue. "I'll let you off this time, Miss Farman, but don't make a habit of it." He nodded towards a spare desk, one beside my roommate, Mary, and I went and took a seat.

"Hey," I whispered. She gave me a quick smile and a nod, turning to the front of the class. _Nerd_, I thought, but she was a nice girl so I wasn't going to make fun of her or anything like that. I turned to the front of the class, determined to pay attention and do well in history, unlike at my last school.

Ten minutes later, and I was struggling to stay attentive as the teacher went on and on about heroes and all that stuff.

Another five minutes, and I ended up fazing out and listening to the thoughts of birds in the trees outside.

I was snapped out of my daydream by the familiar ringing of the bell. _Whoa, was that the whole hour? _It had gone faster than I had expected… but I hadn't been paying attention to the teacher. Birds were _so _much more interesting.

I met Mary outside of the classroom. "Want to sit with me and Popuri in the cafeteria?" she asked. "We went looking for you at morning tea but we couldn't find you."

"Oh, I was talking to some other guys. But yes, I'll sit with you."

We went back to our dorm room to drop off our things before heading to the cafeteria. Popuri was already there when we arrived, sitting at an empty table. I wouldn't have been surprised if someone had sat there but she had scared them off with all her high pitched chatter and hyperactivity.

"Hey Poppy," I said as I slid into a seat opposite her. Mary took a seat beside her. "How was your class?"

"It was awesome!" she exclaimed cheerfully. "I had a potions class. Did you know we get to make potions here, Claire? We got to mix ingredients together and make colourful potions, except apparently I put too much of this herb thing in and it went BOOM!" She laughed. "It was very embarrassing. I wonder what the potion would have turned out to be if I had done it right… I didn't get to watch everyone else finish because the teacher said that I had to go get cleaned up and made me leave the class. It was fun."

I laughed. Popuri's happiness was contagious. "Glad you had fun."

"Claire and I had _History of Heroes_," said Mary. "It was interesting. Claire, what did you think about that story he told us about the superhero who sacrificed his life for that girl?"

_Who sacrificed his life for that girl? _I thought. _Gee, that sounds like some sort of cheesy fairytale. _"I thought it was very interesting," I said, pretending I had been oh so attentive during class.

"I thought it was so romantic." Mary sighed dreamily, leaning her head on her hands.

"Yeah…" I said. She was such a hopeless romantic.

I looked around the cafeteria, and my eyes stopped on a boy with long brown hair, dressed in brown. _Brown freak_, I was sitting by himself in the corner of the room, and I felt sorry for him. "Excuse me for a moment," I said to my roommates, standing up and walking over to him.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked.

"Y-Yes, I'm fine," he stuttered. He seemed really shy. I slipped into a seat beside him.

"I'm Claire," I introduced myself.

"Cliff," was his simple reply.

_Ya don't talk much, do you? _I thought. "Do you want to sit with me and my friends?" I nodded towards the table where Mary and Popuri were seated.

"Oh I wouldn't want to intrude or anything…" he said quietly.

"Nonsense!" I grabbed his hand, and practically dragged him to our table.

"Cliff, meet Popuri and Mary," I said. "Popuri, Mary, this is Cliff."

"H-Hi…" he said shyly.

I sat down again, and motioned for him to sit beside me. He hesitantly did so.

"So, Cliff, what's your power?" I asked in an attempt to start a conversation and get the shy boy to actually talk a little.

"I'm a s-shape-shifter," he stammered. I had to force myself not to laugh at the thought of Ricken the Chicken again. He continued. "I shape-shift into a raven."

"Really?" I exclaimed. "That's so cool. I'm an animal communicator."

"I'm a dreamer," Mary told him. "And Popuri over there can clone herself and can change the colour of her hair."

He nodded. "C-Cool…"

"It's very cool."

I gasped and spun around, seeing a dark skinned boy sitting in the chair at the head of the table, wearing a purple bandana. _Where did he come from? _

As if she had read my mind, Mary asked the same question.

"From the lunch line," he responded. Mary shook her head.

"No, I mean… How long have you been sitting there?"

"About ten seconds," he replied. "I'm a teleporter," he added with a smirk.

"Oh my gosh!" exclaimed Popuri. "Really? That's awesome! Show me!"

With a smirk, the boy vanished and reappeared behind Popuri. "Boo."

Popuri squealed her usual high-pitched squeal and spun around, and then burst into a fit of laughter. She clapped. "That's awesome!"

The boy smirked again and teleported back to his original chair. "I'm Kai."

The four of us introduced ourselves. We all sat at that table having a rather interesting conversation about everything and nothing at the same time until the bell rang.

As I headed off to my next class, _Potions_, with Sammie, I knew that the five of us had become a group of friends that would probably stick together for the year.

* * *

I should probably be starting the huge interesting plot around chapter five, possibly chapter four. Keep reading!

And while you're at it, press the nice big button down there and write me a review, will you?


	4. Like a Fantasy Novel

**Chapter 4**

**Like a Fantasy Novel **

I hate to say it, but the following four months at Harvest High weren't all that interesting. Okay, that's a lie. They were fantastic. _Power Class _and _Potions _were great fun; undoubtedly my two favourite classes. _Power Class _was basically a bludge lesson, every lesson. We'd be practicing our powers, so I got to spend the lesson having a mental conversation with Sammie, or with the birds or any other animals that had made it to the school. And _Potions_, well, what explanation is needed? Who wouldn't enjoy making numerous mixtures that can do magic things. But while the school was fantastic, I say that those few months weren't all that interesting because they were nothing compared to what happened afterwards.

But first, allow me to fill you in on some basic details, or pretty much, gossip of the 'boring' first few months. As I had expected, Mary, Popuri, Cliff, Kai and I had became a very close group of friends. We were like a tiny club of best friends. We spent morning tea and lunch together almost every day, and we'd hang out after school, occasionally studying, when we could be bothered, or just sitting there with our textbooks open discussing the latest gossip that we had heard that day. Jill had become close to her two roommates, Anne Thein and Elli Nunn, and Jack had become good friends with Gray, who had turned out to be his roommate, and his other roommate Trent Dock. And for the record, I still had a crush on Gray. He hadn't asked me out, much to my disappointment, and I liked the 'guy ask girl' idea, so I didn't ask him out myself. But, I was pretty sure that he liked me, and I was subtly hinting that I liked him. I'd smile and wave when we passed each other in the corridor, and I'd sit next to him in a number of classes. He was so clueless. My group of friends had noticed it. They said it was as obvious as it would be if I had a giant, flashing sign floating above my head that said "I LIKE GRAY!" They had bugged me about it one lunch time.

I was sitting at 'our' table, listening to Popuri babble about some potion she had made in class which had successfully turned a wine glass into a dinner plate, when Gray walked past. I smiled at him, lifted my hand in greeting and said, "Hey!" He nodded, smiling slightly back at me and said "Hi," before heading to his table with Trent and Jack, which also had Jill, Ann and Elli sitting there too.

"Claire's blushing," Kai had stated, as I turned back around to the table.

"No I'm not!" I had said, a little too quickly. Mary had pointed out that she had noticed that I was developing a crush on him, which got Popuri all excited and Kai had to cup his hand over her mouth to stop her from repeating it so the whole cafeteria could hear. I gave up denying it and admitted that I had a 'teeny-tiny crush' on him. They teased me about it from time to time, to get me blushing.

Oh, and guess what!? We got Cliff out of his shell. Okay, _I _got Cliff out of his shell, with a little help from the others. For the first few weeks, he was _painfully _shy, but I kept persisting to talk to him, and eventually he started talking back. And so we got him to become more talkative. He wasn't super talkative or anything, but if you started the conversation, he'd continue it quite happily, without stuttering. I thought that getting him out of his shell was a great feat.

So that was pretty much the events of the first four months of Harvest High. It was after that that things got a lot more … interesting. And when I say interesting, I mean that it would be great in a fantasy book, but for us living it, it was horrible and had me wishing that it was simply something I was reading in a fantasy book.

It all began on a Sunday, the end of week seven of the school term. My group and I had decided to go spend the day in the town that was about a half hour walk from the school. Well, it would have been a half hour walk, had we not had Kai in our group. Being a teleporter meant that he could get all five of us, and Sammie, there in a matter of seconds. Like the school, the town was a magic town. Food at cafés could be made within five seconds, magazine and newspapers appeared every hour or so with the latest news, and you could freely use your powers without worrying about getting caught.

We were hanging out at a cute little corner café. Popuri, Mary and I were having a very heated conversation about … well, nothing in particular. We pretty much said the first thing that popped into our head, and when you're talking to Popuri, the first thing that pops into her head is bound to be random. Kai was listening and eating a very tasty looking ice cream, and Cliff was being his normal, quiet self. That was until we heard Headmaster Maynor's voice. He wasn't anywhere near us. In fact, he wasn't even in the town. But his voice was in our minds, and undoubtedly in the minds of every other Harvest High student. _All students please return to the main hall immediately. IMMEDIATELY! _

None of us were surprised by hearing a voice in our mind. This was the way we got messages across in our magic high school. It was used instead of a loud speaker. The message itself had surprised us. We weren't usually required to be in the school during weekends, and the urgency of the message frightened us. Kai scoffed down the rest of his ice cream and stood up, as did the rest of us. We linked hands, with me being on the end of our chain so that I was able to hold Sammie, and Kai teleported all of us back to the school. Well, not exactly. He tried to teleport us to the main hall, but he only managed to teleport us to just outside the open school gates.

"That's odd," he said, frowning in confusion.

Mary wobbled as we arrived at our destination, but Kai put one hand around her waist and steadied her. It's hard to explain what it's like to teleport with Kai, but it's like moving in extreme fast forward, seeing the whole distance we travel in the blink of an eye. It had taking us a while to get used to, and Mary still wasn't used to it. I had wondered if maybe it had something to do with her bad eye sight and her glasses, but I didn't want to seem rude by asking. We waited for her to steady herself before turning to head through the golden school gates.

But we couldn't.

Literally, we were unable of getting into the school. As we tried to step into the school, we were bounced backwards. I landed on Popuri, Sammie landing on me, Cliff and Kai landing nearby and Mary rolling back and landing lying on the ground.

"Ow," Popuri groaned, pushing me off of her so she could sit up. Cliff sat up and rubbed his head, and Kai walked over to Mary. "You okay?" he asked, offering her a hand. She allowed him to help her pull herself up to a sitting position, but then looked around, patting the ground. "Where are my glasses?" she mumbled, reminding me of Velma from the TV show _Scooby-Doo_ as she crawled around, searching for them. Kai found them on the ground and passed them to her. One of the lenses had cracked, but at least she could see.

"Is everyone okay?" I asked. The group mumbled and nodded in response, considering that no one was seriously injured.

"What was that?" Mary asked, walking over to us. We all shook our heads, having no idea. Kai cautiously walked toward the school again, stopping an inch before the open gate, and slowly reached forward, into the school. His hand bounced back. "Force field," he muttered.

Cliff looked at us, and then shape-shifted into a raven and flew up. We tried to watch him, but the sun was blinding. After a minute, he landed and returned to his human form. "It's all the way around," he said.

Mary pushed her broken glasses up the bridge of her nose. "An urgent message to return to the main hall, a force-field around the school… what's going on?"

"More importantly, how do we get inside?" Popuri asked, before yelling "HELLO? LET US IN!"

There was no answer. Popuri looked at us. "Cover your ears." We didn't hesitate to do as she told us, and even with our ears blocked we heard her let out a high-pitched scream. Sammie, unable to cover her ears, barked loudly and somewhat aggressively, in fear.

_Is that one of her powers!? Screaming loudly!? _

Popuri stopped screaming and took a deep breath. "Sorry Sam," she said. "Sorry guys."

"It's okay…" I said slowly. Thankfully, her scream had got the attention of one of the teachers, who came rushing outside.

"Are you kids okay?" she asked.

"Fine," answered Mary. "Except that we're locked out of our own school."

"Sorry, sorry, hold on a moment," said the teacher. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them they were purple. And we watched as the force-field turned purple too, becoming visible. We were able to watch it as it opened from the top. Once it vanished, the teacher blinked, her eyes returning to their normal brown colour. "Hurry now, children. Come inside and head to the main hall, quickly."

We exchanged glances, and began running toward the main hall. We could see the purple force-field come into existence again, protecting the school.

_What do you think is going on? _Sammie asked me as she ran beside me toward the main hall.

_No idea, _I responded. _But it's big. _

Arriving at the main hall, we burst through the doors. The entire school was in there, and they were in a panic. I could see an empath at the front desperately trying to use her control over emotions to calm down the students, but feeling overwhelmed by the fear that radiated off every student and finding that she was unable to control them.

"Claire!" I heard the familiar voice of my cousin, and a second later the girl had her arms wrapped around me. "Thank the goddess."

"Jilly, tell me what's going on," I said. She pulled back, her pretty purple eyes filled with fear.

"Ann's missing."


	5. Time to be Heroes

I found the motivation to update today. You should be very proud of me. :) I hope you like this chapter.

**Review Replies**

weirdogirl: Don't die! Here, look, I updated! I'm glad you like the story. And was I that obvious with the pairing? Oh well. I like that pairing.

Chocolate Ball: Why yes, your pressing of the review button made me very happy. Glad you like it.

Xealvi: When I read the first line of your review, I was like "B-But I thought it was good . . ." and then I read the rest and I was like ":)". :D

MewZeairu: How could I resist not making him a chicken? :D

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harvest Moon.  
**

* * *

****Chapter 5**

**Time to be Heroes **

"What!"

My eyes widened, and I stared at Jill, praying that this was some kind of practical joke. Beside me, I saw Mary tense up, Popuri gasp, and Cliff's eyes widen. Kai just stared at her. "Ann's missing? What do you mean?"

Jill took a few deep breaths so that she was able to speak. I could see tears welling up in her beautiful lilac eyes. "Th-This morning, she wasn't there when I woke up, and I thought she must have gone out and so I didn't pay any attention to it but then I remembered that she had my notebook with her and so I went searching and I bumped into Keria and I asked if she had seen her . . ." She took a deep breath, before continuing. "And Keria said she had this power to sense people's minds and track them so she closed her eyes and tried to find Ann's mind but then her eyes snapped open and she said she couldn't feel it. She said it was like Ann didn't exist." Jill couldn't stop tears from rolling down her cheeks. "She said that the only time she can't feel someone's mind is when they're dead."

"No," I heard Mary breathe, as Jill dropped her head onto my shoulder and cried. Tears were filling up in my eyes too, but I blinked them back and hugged my cousin. "She can't be dead."

"Then why can't Keria feel her mind? What other explanation is there?"

"Well how could she have died?"

"She had to have been kidnapped." The bell-like voice of Annona Goddess came from behind me. I would have turned around, but I was too busy hugging my cousin.

"She's gone missing completely," the head girl continued. "There's no sign of her having ever left the building, nor of anyone coming in, so whoever killed her must have somehow teleported her away, or used some other spell to get her out of the school. And then they must have killed her."

_How can she be so heartless? _I thought to myself. She was stating the most-likely murder of a school student and my cousin's best friend, and she sounded like she didn't care.

"We've put a force-field around the school and so it's safest you all stay in here until we find out what's happened. We'll set up some sleeping bags and mattresses if need be." And with that, she turned on her heels and walked away, her long dress trailing behind her.

I heard Jill mumble some bad word into my shoulder, undoubtedly referring to the head girl. She looked up at me, wiping her tears. "E-Excuse me," she stammered, and ran off, pushing open a door to the girl's bathrooms, and letting it fall shut behind her. I bit my lip. _I hope she's going to be okay. _

I leant back against the wall, and then sunk down to the ground, my group of friends joining me. Kai was glaring at the retreating form of Annona.

"They're not doing anything," he muttered. "They're not trying to find her at all."

"They're protecting the school . . ." Mary pointed out, but then Kai snapped at her.

"IT'S NOT HARD TO PROTECT A SCHOOL! Just put a damn force-field up and go on your way. They're not even bothering to find Ann!"

Mary looked at her feet, saying nothing. Kai's eyes softened, as he seemed to realise what he had just said. "Sorry . . ." he mumbled guiltily.

"It's okay," she replied in a whisper.

"If you're complaining about the fact that they're not looking for Ann, then why don't we?" We all looked up in shock. The comment had come from Cliff's mouth.

"Who are you and where's Cliff?" Kai asked jokingly, though even he seemed amazed that Cliff would suggest something like that.

"Well no one else is going to," he said. "So why don't we? Kai can teleport us all to the outside of the main hall, and we can go searching."

I looked around our group. "Is it just me, or do our powers seem kind of, well, useless? Mary can't do anything while it's day, I can only communicate with animals, Popuri can only clone herself, Cliff can fly in the form of a raven and Kai can shape-shift, but even that's not fantastic for tracking a girl who may not even be alive."

Mary looked at me, and then at Cliff. "It's worth a try."

Cliff smiled; not at all looking like the shy boy we hand first met. "Who's with me?"

Mary put her hand in, followed by Kai, and Popuri. "You guys are insane," I said, but I put my hand on top of them, And Sammie put her paw on top as well.

"Ready to be heroes?" said Kai, looking around the main hall to make sure we weren't being watched.

"Ready," we all replied simultaneously, and Sammie barked. We closed our eyes and Kai teleported us all out of the main hall.

The teleportation took longer than usual, probably because of the force-field that surrounded the school. It was probably messing with Kai's powers. He looked slightly pale when our feet hit solid ground again. "No more teleporting," he said, "unless we have no other option."

We nodded, and looked around, trying to work out where to start. Mary and I exchanged glances, and nodded. "Ann's room."

The five of us and Sammie sprinted to the girl's dorm building, and up the stairs. Cliff flew ahead, in his raven form, followed by Sammie, then me, then Kai, Popuri, and Mary behind us. She wasn't exactly the athletic type. We skidded to a stop in front of Ann's dorm room, and tried the handle. It was locked.

"Shoot," I muttered in frustration. Cliff the raven looked at us with his beady raven eyes, and then flew back down the stairs where we had come from. "Cliff!" I exclaimed, but he didn't turn back. "What is that boy doing?"

About two minutes later, Cliff, back in his human form, opened the door to Ann's room, from the inside.

"The window was open," he said, noticing our questioning looks.

"You're a genius!" I said, and Kai gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder. We then began searching the room. Ann's bed was unmade, unlike Elli's and Jill's.

"Do we have any idea what we're looking for?" Popuri asked, opening the wardrobe.

"Anything odd that'll give us some sort of clue to what had happened," Kai said, climbing under the bed to have a look. He then let out a scream. We all jumped, Popuri bumping her head on the shelf. "What is it!"

"Spider!" he exclaimed, and we couldn't help but laugh as he said, to the spider, "Go away. Shoo. Or I'll hit you with my shoe! Hey, that rhymed! AH! MUMMY SPIDER!"

We were laughing as Kai scurried out from under the bed. Who knew that he would have arachnophobia? He glared at all of us. "Shut up."

I rolled my eyes, and clambered under the bed, returning with the spider and mummy spider that Kai had been so afraid of sitting on my wrist. Kai shuddered, and the other's just watched. "Aren't you scared?" Popuri asked.

I shook my head. "They're tarantulas. Big, hairy, scary-looking, and completely harmless."

"Well they're still big, hairy and scary-looking," muttered Kai, as I walked to the window and let the spiders crawl out of it. Then I gasped, as something white caught my eye.

"What is it?" Cliff asked, walking over as I unhooked it from the window. I didn't speak; I just turned around to show the other's what I had found.

It was Ann's hair ribbon.

* * *

Okay, slightly anti-climatic, but hey, I updated. That's good, right? A review would be appreciated.

Also, I have a couple of pairing-related questions for you to answer in your review.

Which pairing do you like better:

1. KaixMary, JackxMary, or GrayxMary?

2. GrayxClaire, CliffxClaire or KaixClaire?

Your answer may or may not affect the story. But you best review anyway. :)


	6. In Her Dreams

Why hello there everyone. Guess what! I have, at last, updated _Harvest High_! Wow, aren't I just motivated this year? Yesterday I updated _Let Love In's Challenge_, and today I updated this and wrote a blog post. I'm awfully proud of myself.

**Review Replies**

Xealvi: Thanks for your opinion on the pairings, and thanks even more for the review. Sorry it was short. This one is a bit shorter but...I hope you like it anyway.

weirdogirl: Thanks for reviewing and answering my questions. I'm glad you found the last chapter funny. I laughed while writing it.

Lily Vivi Nekoyama: I updated! Thanks for reviewing and answering.

Hi: I'm glad you like it. Thanks for reviewing and answering.

clairdawesome: But I love my cliffies! Thanks for reviewing, and you will have to read on to see what pairings happen.

xAikioChan: Aww, I like Mary. She's my favourite female character. But I'm glad you like the story anyway. Thank you very much for reviewing.

BloodRoseStone: Thank you very much for reviewing and answering. And yes, it does have some _Harry Potter _moments, doesn't it? I don't put them in on purpose. They just...happen.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Harvest Moon or any special powers. Unfortunately.  
**

* * *

Chapter 6**

**In Her Dreams**

Mary's face paled as she saw what I was holding; clearly she had jumped to the worst possible conclusion. But it was hard not to do so, considering that the psychic Keria hadn't been able to feel her mind, and there was no sign of the girl anywhere.

"It doesn't mean she's…you know…" Kai said, in a soft, very un-Kai-like voice. We all knew he was trying to keep all of our hopes up. We had to find her. We had to.

Mary fiddled with her braid, something we knew she did when she was thinking, or when she was nervous. We all knew it was the former this time.

"Mary?" Cliff asked quietly, and she looked up at him, and then at the rest of us.

"The window's open and Ann's ribbon is caught on it…" she said slowly. "If she had been teleported out of the school…"

My eyes widened in understanding. "That means that she somehow went out the window." I leaned over, looking down at the concrete below. "But she couldn't have jumped out, because she would have broken every bone in her body from a fall like tha- Oh no."

Mary shook her head in disbelief. "No. There'd be blood, or something else showing that she had landed there. She couldn't have…"

"Excuse me."

We all spun around at once, seeing a familiar green haired girl standing at the doorway, arms crossed over her chest. "What are you doing here?"

"N-Nothing, we weren't doing anything…" I said. She ignored me.

"Normal school rules still apply. It's lights out in ten minutes. I expect to see you back in the hall in five." She clapped her hands twice, and vanished in a flash of white light.

"You know, I really hate that girl," Kai stated.

"Maybe we should…"

Mary's comment had us giving her looks of disbelief and anger. She was agreeing with the head girl? But Mary quickly added, "I'm a dreamer, remember? Maybe I can…try to find her mind?"

The five of us exchanged glances, and nodded in agreement. "Come on," I said, and then, lowering my voice, "Five am." I didn't have to say anything else, because they knew what I meant. We walked out the door, careful not to close it completely so that we could get back inside if we needed to, and then headed back to the Great Hall. We discovered that most people were lying in sleeping bags and on mattresses now, getting ready for bed. I looked around for my cousin, having not seen her since she ran off in tears. I was relieved to see her lying in her sleeping bag, not crying any more. She was talking to…Gray. I felt a slight pang of jealousy, but I ignored it. They were allowed to be friends and all.

My friends and I found a couple of mattresses which we pushed away from the rest of the school, into a corner where they could hear us. Because we only had two mattresses, we had to squish up together. Mary and I shared one mattress, Kai and Cliff on the other, and Popuri lay over both mattresses, lying so her head was near ours, and feet near the boys. It wasn't very comfortable, but comfort didn't matter to us. Not right now.

Mary fell asleep first, forcing herself to do so to try and enter Ann's dreams. Popuri went next, snoring softly, followed by Kai and then Cliff. I stayed up about another half hour, mentally talking to Sammie until she fell asleep, and then I did too.

OoO

_Claire. Claire. Claire, wake up! Quick! _

I opened my eyes, taken a moment to remember why I was in the Great Hall and not in my comfortable bed in my own room. I glanced over at Sammie, wondering why she had awoken me so desperately. In her mind, she said one word. _Mary._

I looked over at said girl, biting my lip. She was rolling and thrashing about in her sleep, mumbling something, afraid. I reached out to wake her, but paused. She was a dreamer. She needed to stay asleep.

But what if she was in danger, in someone else's dream?

My indecision didn't last long, as said girl shot awake, muffling a scream by cupping her hand over her mouth. We were too far away from anyone to awake the rest of the school, but it did wake up the rest of my friends. The girl was hyperventilating, her face very pale.

"Mary!" I whispered, grabbing her arm. She looked at me, seeming to see right through me as she continued hyperventilating, frightened. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tightly. "Relax, Mary, please."

It took a moment for her to calm herself, but when she did I released her from the hug. "What happened?"

"Ann's alive," she whispered. "But she's in danger. We all are."

We all agreed that we needed to get outside to talk about this. We hurried to the door, as quietly as we could manage, and, after discovering it was locked, Kai teleported us just outside of it. He looked pale and weak when we arrived, like last time, but it was our only way of getting outside. He had trouble standing, so we all sat down in a circle, so that we could talk. The four of us looked expectantly at Mary.

"She's alive. I could see her dreams. Not clearly, but I could see them. She's somewhere…Somewhere…protected from people who sense minds, like Keria. Usually I can see people's dreams clearly, but all I could see were fuzzy images. And I don't think she could hear me. She's in danger. All of us are in danger. Whoever took her didn't just want her…I don't know why. I just don't know."

She was starting to shake again. We didn't know what exactly she had seen, but clearly she was afraid. Kai wrapped one arm around her, holding her close and trying her best to comfort her. We sat silently under the moonlight, wishing we knew where exactly Ann was and how we could get there to rescue us.

Something passed over the moon, creating a shadow. It was fast; too fast for us to see. We looked to the sky, but we couldn't tell what it was.

Then, from inside the hall, we heard someone scream.

* * *

Sorry that it is short, and I'm even more sorry that it took me ever so long to update. But I will try my best to update more now.

And you could press the lovely review button and write me a review? I'll love you forever. :)


	7. Another One Gone

Hello there, faithful readers, whom I love very deeply! Guess who updated! That's right: ME!

**Review Replies**

Deffene FATE: Is this update speedy enough for you?

weirdogirl: That's okay, you made me smile just by reviewing. :)

dannt: I take it you're a ClairexGray fan? Haha, well, just wait and see.

Xealvi: LET THE CLIFF HANGER LEAVE US IN THE DEPTHS OF DESPAIR AND SUSPENSE! Thanks for reviewing; I'm glad you like it.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Harvest Moon.

ENJOY!

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**Another One Gone**

We reacted immediately, each of us grabbing hold of Kai, with me holding onto Sammie, as he teleported us all back into the hall. Once inside, he slumped weakly against the locked door, looking unwell. "I'm fine," he said as we crouched beside him, but we could all tell that he was not.

The hall was in a panic, like it had been when we had returned just the day before to discover that Ann was missing. The lights were on again, everyone was awake. I could see Annona, the principal, and a few other teachers talking to each other, their voices fast and urgent. Everyone else was talking, louder than the teachers, sounding even more afraid. The psychic girl, Keria, was surrounded by a small group of people, including Jill's room mate, Elli, Gray, and a few others that I didn't recognise.

"Someone else has gone missing, haven't they?" Mary spoke up from beside Kai, who looked like he was on the verge of passing out.

"I fear so…" I said, returning to Kai's side. His brown eyes looked up at me, and then closed.

"Kai!" cried Popuri. "KAI! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!"

"Popuri," said Mary softly. "He's just unconscious. He'll be alright; he's just regaining his energy. The force-field is making teleporting more energy-consuming for him."

"Oh, okay," said Popuri, calming down a little.

I glanced over at Annona and the teachers. "I'm going to find out who has gone missing. You guys stay here and look after Kai."

"I'll come with you," said Cliff, standing up. I nodded to him and we both walked over to the teachers.

"Excuse me," I said, and they immediately became quiet, looking over at me. Some of them looked sad. "Uh…Who…Who is it?"

They exchanged nervous-looking glances, and then Annona spoke.

"Jill Farman."

My breath caught in my throat and a knot formed in my stomach. I felt sick. I was surely going to be sick.

_Claire? Claire! _Sammie looked at me worriedly, but even though it was in my mind her voice sounded distant. Everything sounded distant. It was like one of those movies when someone's about to pass out and everything becomes softer except for their heartbeat, which became louder.

I felt faint. I think Cliff said my name, and I felt his hand on my arm, supporting me. I probably looked like I was going to faint too.

He placed one hand on my back, holding me close as he led me to the door where the rest of my friends stood. Kai was awake again, looking a little better than he did before. Cliff and I sat down; me leaning against him. I was coming back to reality now, so everything no longer sounded different.

"What happened?" Kai asked, and Mary put her hand on my forehead worriedly.

"It's Jill," said Cliff, and then I cracked, tears rolling down my cheek. I squeezed my eyes shut tight and buried my face in Cliff's chest. He put his arms around me, trying to comfort me. I heard everyone gasp, and Mary whisper "No…"

"We have to find her," I whispered, my voice muffled by Cliff's t-shirt. I pulled myself away from him and wiped my eyes.

"We will," said Kai, putting his hand on top of mine. "I promise."

I gave him a grateful smile. I believed him. We would find her. I'd die before I gave up.

"Does anyone know who she was sleeping beside? Maybe they could help us…"

"Gray," I answered immediately. Should I have been embarrassed that I knew that?

Cliff offered his hand to help me up, but I insisted I was fine and got up myself, not wanting to seem weak. Gray was no longer with Keria and Elli, and was sitting on his mattress by himself. We walked over.

He looked up when he heard footsteps. "Claire…" he said, seeing me. "I'm so sorry."

I sat down beside him, quickly joined by the rest of my friends. "It's not your fault."

He shook his head, looking at the ground. "I should have heard something…I slept though it all. I only noticed something was wrong when Elli woke me up by screaming. She was the first one to notice…"

I sighed. Clearly he wasn't going to be any help.

"I'm sorry," he said again.

"No, don't…It's not your fault."

"Hey…guys…" Kai was looking around, frowning. "Where's Mary?"

My eyes widened and I shook my head slowly in disbelief. "N-No…No she…That's…"

Cliff jumped to his feet and ran to Keria. We couldn't hear what he was saying, but we watched his expression change to utter fear as he returned to us.

"She's…She's gone."

"No! No we can't lose her too! We can't lose another one!" I was shouting now. "Someone had to have seen something! She couldn't have been kidnapped while we were right here!"

Cliff put his hand on my arm, but I shoved him off. "NO! What is WRONG with you? Mary is MISSING and you're just SITTING THERE!"

"Claire," said Cliff. "We are going to find her. We are going to find her, and Ann, and Jill. But you need to calm down."

I slumped down on the floor, the tears coming once more. "Y-You're right," I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut tight. "I'm sorry."

I felt someone stroke my hair. I hoped it was Gray, and then mentally hit myself for even thinking about that when my best friend and my cousin, and my cousin's best friend, were all missing, apparently having disappeared from the face of the earth.

_Claire._

I jumped up in surprise. The voice in my mind was not Sammie's, and it was not my own. _Wh-Who…?_

_It's me. Keria. I know something that might help you._

_What? You have to tell me!_

_No one entered the hall. But Mary stood up and walked off, towards the window. I did not pay any attention to it, and I am sorry, but I hope that helps you somehow._

_…Thank you. Thank you very much._

I sat up, and whoever was stroking my hair stopped, so I didn't know who it was. "No one entered the hall. Mary walked off, to the window."

"How do you know?" asked Popuri.

"Keria," I answered simply, standing up and walking to the nearest window. My friends, after exchanging glances behind me, jumped up and followed.

I looked at the window. It was open. But it wasn't when we fell asleep at first. Annona had locked every window and door in the hall, so that no one could get inside. And it could only be unlocked from the inside.

"How…peculiar…" I murmured, and then Kai gasped. If this was a cartoon, there would definitely be a bright light bulb above his head. _Ding!_

"It's not a teleporter!" he said. "Whoever's taking them isn't a teleporter. It's a hypnotist."

"What?" Cliff asked, confused.

"It's so obvious!" exclaimed Kai. "This person is talking to their victims…But if they were talking we'd hear them, so they must be projecting their thoughts into people's minds…And they're telling them to go to the window. It all makes sense! Remember, we found Ann's hair ribbon on her window!"

I gasped. "So once they're outside she can kidnap them easily, and they wouldn't resist because they're hypnotised!"

"So we have to work out a way to resist any hypnotic powers…" began Cliff, and I finished, "And then save Jill, Ann and Mary."

"I know now is not a time to be stuck up and all…" said Kai. "But we are geniuses."

I think we all laughed, just slightly. We were going to save them. We were sure of it.

"We're coming, guys," I said. "We're going to save you."

* * *

Too rushed? Why don't you review and tell me what you thought?

:)


	8. Hypnotising and Defence

Yes, I know, I know, I am the worst when it comes to updating. But hey, at least I updated, right? Now, I'll apologise if this has many typos - I wrote it after midnight. Don't ask what I was doing up at that time. School holidays really stuffs up my body clock. Anyway, enough blabbering. Let's get onto the review replies.

**Review Replies**

weirdogirl: I'm glad you think so. I'm enjoying writing it.

StellaAllets: I'm glad. I also like Cliff. :)

LilyViviNekoyama: Ah, who is Kai's official lover? You must wait and see. But remember, showing kindness towards a person doesn't mean you _like _them. This is a very tight-knit group of friends.

F.4.7.3: Well, I'm sorry you had to wait so long, but here, at last, is chapter 8.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harvest Moon and I did not design any of the super powers of any of the students.

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**Hypnotising and Defence**

"Okay." Kai clapped his hands together and looked around our small group. I could see his calm, collected appearance falter slightly for a second, and I knew it was because of how unnatural it was to be a group of only four and Sammie. Mary was just as important as the rest of us. Without her, we weren't that amazing club of friends that we liked to think we were.

"We need to work out how to resist hypnotic abilities," he began, and then paused, before adding, "Does anyone have any idea how?"

I looked around. Cliff shook his head, looking disappointed in himself. Popuri also looked uncertain, before her eyes lit up and she raised her hand. "What about the library?"

Kai gave her a 'you-can't-be-serious' look, as the library was most certainly not his favourite place to be – silence and studying were probably his least favourite things in the world – but then he let out a soft sigh. "It might be the best idea we've got." Cliff and I nodded simultaneously, and then it was decided.

Getting out of the hall was easy enough. With everyone in a panic, four students and a dog slipping silently to the door and then being teleported outside of it went unnoticed by everyone, except for Gray. As much as I liked him, he wasn't part of our group, and besides, we could have been putting ourselves in danger doing this. We were willing to because Mary was our best friend, and Jill was my cousin, but we weren't going to put him in danger as well. And besides, he was able to cover for us – if somebody did notice that we had gone missing, he could tell them that we hadn't been kidnapped, and Keria could always double-check our location with her mind to make sure we were alive.

The library was unlocked, as always. I guessed that they hadn't bothered to lock up any of the school but the great hall, because that was the only place that needed to be protected. Whoever was out there was kidnapping people, not stealing books.

"This place is so...eerie," Cliff murmured beside me as we walked in, our footsteps echoing in the building. The library was always silent - if you spoke anywhere except for the room separate from the rest of the building, made for group study, you were immediately told to be silent or leave – but now, silence took on a whole new level. Perhaps my senses were just on high alert because of everything that had happened, but I could hear everything from my heartbeat to our footsteps to our breathing, and I could hear Sammie's thoughts in the back of my mind too.

Kai looked down the rows of books, his expression saying something along the lines of "There's so many!" Aloud, he said, "Where are we supposed to start?"

I turned to face the small group, thinking for a moment. Where would you find information on defending yourself against hypnotists? I looked at a few buttons on the wall. Next to them read the words "Author", "Genre", "Title", "Subject", and "Date". I clicked the one beside "Subject", and the books on the shelves flew around to different positions. Now they were organised alphabetically by subject instead of by author as they usually were. This was why I loved magic libraries. It was so much easier to search for what you needed to find. "Popuri, go look in the 'P' section for anything on powers," I began, and she nodded her head, rushing to that section. "Kai, check the 'D' section for defence, Cliff, 'H' for Hypnotising, and I'll go...'A' for abilities. We have to find something."

The two boys nodded their heads and hurried off to their assigned sections, while Sammie followed me to the 'A' section. I muttered to myself as I shuffled through the books, and managed to find two ridiculously thick books on abilities of the magically gifted people. Hoping there would be something; I brought them over to a table that Kai had found, where he was sitting with a book on defence, and took a seat beside him. Popuri and Cliff joined us shortly afterwards, carrying their own books.

There was complete silence as we went through pages after pages in hopes of finding something that could help us. The only sound was the sound of pages being turned, and Sammie's footsteps, as the dog had taken to pacing.

"This has nothing," muttered Kai after what must have been at least ten or fifteen minutes of complete silence, dropping the book on defence on the floor. "Hypnotising isn't even mentioned in it."

"This doesn't help either," said Popuri. "It explains the hypnotising ability, but not how to defend yourself against it." The power book joined Kai's on the floor, and my ability books followed shortly after when I realised they gave as much information as Popuri's books had. We all looked towards Cliff, who was engrossed in his book on hypnotising. It was significantly thinner than all of our books, but if it was solely on hypnotising, maybe, just maybe, it would have something.

"_For some hypnotisers_," he quoted, running his finger along the page. "_Eye-contact is necessary for the ability to work on the subject. However, some hypnotisers are stronger than others and do not require eye-contact_."

Kai, Popuri and I all let out a sigh at the same time, and Kai said, "Clearly this person is 'stronger than others', because I doubt he or she made eye contact with Ann or Jill while they were asleep, or Mary, from a closed window."

I put my head in my hands, fresh tears welling up in my eyes. "This is _hopeless_, guys!" Cliff put his hand on my back and rubbed it gently. "It's not, Claire," he murmured. "We're going to save Jill, and Ann, and Mary. I promise, okay? Please don't cry."

Behind my hands, I blinked back tears. Crying would get us nowhere, I reminded myself, and I looked back at the group, and at Cliff. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise," said Kai. "It's a completely understandable reaction. But right now, we should head back before..."

He was cut off by a familiar, melodic, and yet undoubtedly _furious _voice. "What in the world are you four doing in here?"

"...before that."

We looked up and found Annona standing in the open doorway of the library, arms crossed over her chest, positively _fuming_. You could practically see steam coming out of the girl's ears.

"W-We were just trying to find information that would help..." Cliff stammered nervously, but Annona didn't find this a decent excuse.

"You're alone, in a library, without the teachers and seniors to watch over you, while people are being _kidnapped_. You could have gone missing, and no one would have noticed. You're lucky that Gray decided to tell us where you went and you're lucky that Keria has the ability to sense your location."

"In case you haven't noticed..." Kai piped in, managing to keep his expression as calm as possible, even though I knew that he was frustrated and pretty much hated the Head Girl at that point in time. "Two students went missing from this supposedly safe Great Hall, despite the fact that, as you say, the teachers and seniors were there to watch over us all. That's _two _students who went missing. At least here we're all actually watching out for each other."

Annona was _not _impressed, to say the least. "In case _you _haven't noticed, we're doing everything in our power to protect you."

"Well then you're not doing a very good job!"

"Kai...Sumera..." said Annona, as calmly as she could manage (and clearly, she was trying very, very hard). "If you, Claire, Cliff, and Popuri, do not...get to the great hall...immediately...I will have you all...expelled..."

Kai, I could tell, was about to come up with a witty response, but I gave him a gentle kick under the table and a look that he understood. He sighed in defeat. "Fine."

The young woman turned, opened the door, and held it open, glaring daggers at us as we walked out of it, shoulders sagged. We had gotten no useful information, and only gotten into trouble.

"If only we knew a hypnotist..." muttered Popuri, and my eyes lit up. I looked at the Head Girl, who gave me a 'What-do-you-want?' look.

"Are there any hypnotists at the school?"

"Well, yes. One in your grade, actually. Her name is Karen Supple."

"Karen Supple," I repeated. "She'll have to be in the hall. She can't be too hard to find."

We arrived back at the hall, Annona locking the door behind us and then leaving us immediately, her long dress flowing along the ground as she returned to the teachers. Kai looked around the students.

"How are we supposed to find someone when we don't even know what she looks like?"

Popuri grinned knowingly at us. "Cover your ears."

Kai and Cliff immediately did as they were told, though I, instead, crouched to the ground and placed my hands gently over Sammie's ears. She didn't like the loud noise before, and a dog's hearing was much better than a human's. I'd risk it.

"KAREN SUPPLE!"

The shout made me cringe and think that "risking it" was not such a good idea after all, but it certainly did what we wanted it to. The brouhaha immediately stopped, the silence so unnatural after all the commotion, and one girl made her way towards us. She was a brunette, with natural blonde streaks, dressed in denim short shorts, a white singlet, and a torn purple vest. "Yeah?"

"Karen." After hearing Popuri shout like that right next to me, I could hardly hear my own voice. "You're a hypnotist, aren't you?"

Karen crossed her arms, shifting her weight onto one leg; a position of boredom. However, I saw what might have been interest, or perhaps curiosity, in her green eyes for a second. "Yeah, I am."

"Great. We need your help."

The girl sighed. "What do you need?"

Kai spoke up then, which I was grateful for. "We have reason to believe that the person behind the missing students is a hypnotist." I was surprised at how..._professional _he sounded. It was very un-Kai-like. "We were wondering if there was a way to resist the power."

"Well," said the hypnotist thoughtfully, placing one hand on her hip. "Some hypnotists need eye-cont-" Kai groaned, cutting her off mid-word. "We already know that."

Karen rolled her eyes. "That's pretty much the only way you can resist my powers...Unless..."

I think it's safe to assume our eyes lit up with hope, staring at the girl intently. "Unless what?"

"There's a potion. The recipe is in the fourth year's book in the potion classroom. It's said to protect from even the strongest hypnotist, but it takes a day to make. And besides, we're kind of trapped in here. So...good luck being heroes or whatever." And without waiting for a response, she turned and walked away, hips swaying as she walked (in a way that, I know, would have attracted a lot of attention from guys, had everyone not been so worried about everything else going on at the school). I turned back to my group.

"This potion might be the only hope we've got," said Kai.

"But if we sneak out again Annona will kill us," Cliff murmured softly.

"Mary's life is on the line," I said, "as is Jill's and Ann's, and who knows who's next."

"Why don't we ask Annona's permission?" suggested Popuri.

"She'd never agree..." muttered Kai.

"I wonder if we could get Karen on our side..." I added.

"Or we could just try persuading her," said Cliff. "If we make her understand, she has to agree." He looked around at all of us, and when nobody else spoke up he said, "So it's worth a shot, right?"

When no one protested, I nodded my head. "It's the only plan we've got."


	9. Potion

Well, I was _supposed _to spend this afternoon working on a huge psychology assignment that's due in less than three days time which I am nowhere near finished, but instead, I decided to write you a chapter of _Harvest High_, so you better feel pretty damn special. Which is all the more reason for you guys to review, you know...

**Review Replies**

Invader Cakez: Hmm, why is it only girls? Is it because they are girls? Or is it for another reason, and their gender is just coincidental...

Yes, that's it. One reply. I feel very lonely, guys. Very, very lonely. I know for a fact that more than one person has read this...Thank you, Invader Cakez. You made me happy. If you hadn't replied, this chapter wouldn't exist.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own _Harvest Moon_, and I don't know any potion recipes. **  
**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

**Potion**

"No."

The four of us exchanged glances. We had approached the Head Girl to tell her of our plan, and Kai had literally only just opened his mouth to speak when Annona had given us her answer. The green-haired girl crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at us, an expression of superiority and stubbornness.

"Annona, you haven't even heard the plan yet!" I exclaimed, and the young woman gave me a look.

"Will it involve you leaving the Hall?"

"...Well..."

"Then my answer is no."

Cliff let out a soft groan. "Please, Annona, just hear us out."

Cliff repeated the information that Karen had given us, explaining our reasons for believing that the kidnapper was a hypnotist, and then explaining our plan.

"...and we just need to get to go to the potions classroom to make it."

Annona's expression had not changed throughout the entire explanation. She just looked at us, clearly bored. "No."

Popuri glared daggers at the woman in front of us, and let out a cross between a high pitched squeal and a groan. She shoved her way in front of us, Annona backing away as she approached her and the pink-haired one cornering the girl.

"Listen, you...you...you stupid person!" she exclaimed, and we probably would have chuckled at her inability to think up a better word had the situation not been so awful. "Our friend's life is in danger! Claire's _cousin's _life is in danger! And you are not doing _anything _about it! You say you're protecting us by keeping us all here under watch but you're not, because people got kidnapped from this very Hall and you did nothing, absolutely _nothing _to stop it. And now we've thought up a plan that could save the lives of everyone here and you won't even let us give it a go, because you think we'll be in more danger in another classroom, even though it would mean that we're alone and can watch over each other easily and make sure that none of us get hurt. So why won't you just let us..."

"Miss Bellflower?"

Popuri shut her mouth and straightened up immediately, though her red eyes were still filled with anger and frustration towards the Head Girl as she turned to look at Headmaster Maynor.

"What in the world is going on?"

Deciding that Popuri was too angry to respond, I spoke up instead.

"We believe that the kidnapper is a hypnotist, sir, and we know of a potion that can defend one against hypnosis. We were hoping to be excused to the potions room, to make it."

Annona interrupted me. "But, sir, I told them that it was _far too dangerous_ and then Miss Bellflower..."

"You're excused."

I frowned. "Wait, what?"

Annona said the same thing.

"Even the Great Hall is dangerous, Miss Goddess. These four have a plan; the least we can do is let them follow it." He looked down at the dog by my feet. "Sammie will protect them, won't you, girl?"

Sammie barked, and I translated, "She says she'll guard us with her life."

Annona stared at the headmaster, clearly annoyed that she had been disagreed with, but knowing very well that no one argues with the headmaster. Said man just smiled at us.

"Take care of each other. If anything happens, I'll contact you immediately. Be careful." We all nodded, and the headmaster nodded once, clearly giving us permission.

"Thank you!" I said, and my friends quickly said their own words of thanks, Sammie barking, before we turned and hurried to the end of the hall. We glanced towards the headmaster, unsure of if he wished us to teleport, and he raised a hand. The lock clicked and the door opened. All of us, particularly Kai, looked at him thankfully and slipped through the door, before it magically closed behind us.

OoO

"Let's hope this is open..."

Cliff placed his hand on the door handle, and turned it. To our relief, it turned, and the door opened easily, revealing the dark potions classroom. The sun had already started to set. Time was passing way too fast for my liking. The longer we left Ann, and Jill, and Mary at wherever they were, the more danger they were put in. And I did not like that idea at all.

Kai switched the light on, and it cast a dull glow over the room. The lighting in the potion room was always bad. Apparently strong lighting messed up the potions or something, according to the teacher. Personally, I think the school was just too lazy to buy brighter lights; this room was one of the oldest in the school.

"Let's start by finding the recipe."

Cliff walked over to the shelf and picked out the one with a small sticker on it labelled "Fourth Years". He brought it over and placed it on the desk, opening to the contents. From there, it was easy enough to find the correct page. The recipe itself, however, did not look easy enough.

"Fifty-four ingredients!" exclaimed Kai, staring wide-eyed at the page. "What kind of recipe has FIFTY-FOUR ingredients?"

"A very complicated one," I muttered. "Well, we have to try and find..." Popuri cut me off with a gasp.

"Wait, guys, why didn't I think of this before!" She closed her eyes, and another Popuri appeared beside her. And then another. And another. And soon enough, we were surrounded by fifty-four extra pink-haired girls, who, naturally, immediately started bickering about who the real Popuri was, making us all cringe.

"Right, Popuris, listen up!" Popuri – presumably the real one – stood up on the desk to get the attention of the other Popuris. "You there, you collect..."

We watched as she ordered each of the Popuris around, surprised that they were so good at obeying rules, each of them depositing the ingredients on the table, and, once they were done, disappearing into thin air.

"Who knew cloning yourself could be so useful, hey?" Kai said quietly, leaning over to me with a smirk on his face. I just nodded in an agreement, also smirking.

The last clone placed their ingredient on the table, and vanished, and Popuri, with a very satisfied look on her face, turned to face us. "Now we just have..." she looked at the recipe, and I saw her smile falter but she tried to stay positive, "...sixty-one steps."

"Can't you get a clone to do all the work?" Kai asked, and Popuri glared at him, though her cheeks turned pink in embarrassment.

"Clones are...well...as smart as I am...and...you know how I almost never get potions right on the first try in class..." She looked down at her feet. "We can't afford to mess this one up."

Cliff spoke up. "Popuri's right. If we're going to do this right; we have to do it ourselves. We're a team, and we're going to stay that way."

I nodded, smiling slightly for a second. "Then let's get to work."

In hindsight, starting the potion so late at night was not a clever idea, but we were short on time and we didn't really have much of a choice anyway. The first fifty-nine steps were simple enough, only really time consuming. The number of ingredients was ridiculous, and there was some even more ridiculous order in which you had to put them into the cauldron. None of us had watches, but we were certain that it was past midnight when we finished this. Despite our fear for our friends, we were all yawning and struggling to keep our eyes open. And then we discovered that step sixty was to stir it for five minutes every twenty minutes, over a three hour period. Step sixty-one was to let it sit until it changed colour. If we had started earlier, we could have finished step sixty by then, and we could have let it sit while we slept, but clearly that wouldn't be the case.

"It's probably dangerous for us all to sleep at the same time anyway," Cliff pointed out. "Maybe we could take turns sleeping and stirring."

I did the maths in my head quickly. "We'll each have forty-five minute shifts each and then we'll wake up the next person, letting the rest of us sleep."

Sammie barked, and I added, "Sammie says that she'll sleep near whoever is awake and would like them to wake her at even the slightest sign of danger."

Popuri raised her hand. "I'll go first. I'm not tired yet."

I nodded. "I'll go second, then. Cliff can go third and Kai can go fourth. Then we'll just keep rotating until morning to keep watch, but we won't have to stir anymore."

Everyone murmured sounds of agreement. I looked over at Popuri. "Wake me in forty-five minutes, but if you get tired earlier, because you're going first, wake me then so you don't fall asleep, okay?"

"Okay." Popuri nodded her head, and then sat up on the stool in front of the cauldron. Sammie sat down at her feet, and glanced over at me. I knew that she was asking me to stay nearby anyway. She didn't like to be without me. I nodded at her, and lay down nearby. Kai took off his bandana and folded it up to make it thicker; laying his head on it, and Cliff scrunched his jacket into a ball to use as a pillow also.

"G'night, guys," murmured Popuri, staring intently at the cauldron, wooden spoon in hand.

"Goodnight," I replied, and I heard similar mumbles from Kai and Cliff before I let my eyes fall shut.

* * *

Again, review, and I'll give you virtual cookies.


	10. Contacted

Hi guys! So, I've been off school sick for the past few days, but today, actually able to think straight, I figured I'd spend my time moderately productively, and update like a good little author should. I'll try to update more, I really will, but school has just swamped me with assignments which I'm struggling to keep on top of.

**Review Replies**

Greil9: Elli's power will be revealed nearer to the end of the story. She, at the moment, is not one of the more important characters. And the teachers are trying to find the missing students, but they're struggling with it, for obvious reasons, and also for reasons explained in this chapter. Enjoy!

Invader Cakez: What if the kidnapper was someone at the school? What if? Well, is it? Or is it not? I suppose you'll just have to wait and see.

MagicMelody: Actually, that's not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all. I appreciate the suggestion, and I might just use it. Thank you! Oh, and here's your cookie! *Gives virtual cookie*

**Question: **Are having review replies in the author's note annoying? I'm not sure if I should continue writing them in, or if I should just message the people who's reviews I should actually reply to, and leave them out of the author's note. Let me know your opinion on the subject.

**Disclaimer: **If I owned _Harvest Moon_, there would most definitely be a _Harvest High - School for the Gifted _Nintendo DS Game.

* * *

**Chapter 10**

**Contacted**

"Claire?" _Poke_. "Claire?" _Poke, poke. _"Claire!" _Pokepokepokepoke..._

"Okay, okay, I'm awake," I muttered, batting the hand away and groggily opening my eyes. Popuri was staring down at me, holding a wooden spoon. It took me a minute to remember why she had a wooden spoon, and why I was lying on hard ground instead of a bed or mattress. It didn't take me long. Losing people close to you like that isn't something you easily forget.

I groaned as I sat up, rubbing my neck. Cold, hard ground was not the best to sleep on. I looked to Popuri, who handed me a wooden spoon, and a sheet of paper and a pen. I looked at her curiously, and then at the sheet of paper. It was a checklist with a list of times.

"Those are the times we have to stir," she told me, her high voice in a whisper so that we didn't wake the others. "I found a timer that will go off every twenty minutes, so when it does, you just have to reset it, stir for five minutes, and then check the box..." - she pointed to the checklist - "...so we don't forget to do it."

I smiled slightly, impressed with Popuri's idea. The girl wasn't stupid, but sometimes she did lack common sense. I suppose desperate times bring out strength in people. "Thanks, Poppy," I murmured, unconsciously using her nickname.

She smiled at me, and took my hand to help me to my feet. "Cliff's turn is next. Forty-five minutes," she reminded me. I nodded my head. "I know. Sleep well, okay?"

The pink haired girl nodded her head, and sat down where I had been. I took a seat by the bench, glancing at the timer, which had about thirteen minutes to go until the next time it needed to be stirred. I glanced at the checklist again. Popuri was very clever for having done that; we'd know when we were supposed to be finished then. I glanced at the girl, who, exhausted, had already fallen asleep, and then I let my eyes wander over to Kai and Cliff. The two had laid down next to each other – we all seemed to have created an unspoken agreement that we'd stay near to each other, just in case. Cliff was curled into a ball, taking up as little space as possible, whilst Kai was doing the completely opposite – the darker-skinned boy lay on his back, arms stretched out, one of them on top of Cliff (looking rather uncomfortable for the latter) and his mouth was hanging slightly open, snoring softly. I sighed slightly, and leaned my elbow on the bench, resting my head in my hand. Only a couple of days ago we were normal (well, normal plus superpowers, attending a magically gifted school) teenagers, and now here we were, fearing for the lives of ourselves and our best friends and trying to be heroes. I had always wished for adventure when I was younger, but now that I had it, I just wanted to go back to how we were before. At least then we knew that we were all safe.

_You okay? _Sammie's voice entered my mind. I looked down at the dog; she had appeared to be sleeping, but now that I noticed, one of her eyes was cracked open slightly.

_As fine as I can be, _I replied. _Have you been awake this whole time? _

_ Drifting in and out of sleep, _the dog answered. _I'm too alert to let myself fall asleep completely, in case anything happens. Besides, your thoughts kind of woke me up as well._

_ Sorry, I didn't mean to..._

_ Don't worry about it. It's not your fault, after all. _

_ Claire? _

I stiffened slightly as another voice entered my mind, not my own or Sammie's. I relaxed slightly when I recognised it; it was Keria again, but then I frowned. If she was contacting me, it couldn't be good.

_Yeah? _I responded.

_Oh, good, you're okay. Are the others all right? _

I glanced down at my friends, who were in the same position as before, except for the fact that Popuri had latched herself onto one of Kai's outstretched arms. _Yeah, they're fine. Is everything okay?_

There was a short moment of silence before I got a response. _No. Rick Bellflower has gone missing too._

My eyes widened, and I found myself looking at Popuri again. That was her brother.

_Oh goddess, no._

_ We're doing everything we can to protect you all; we really are. We've doubled the force-field again, but it doesn't seem to be working, and I still can't track any of their minds. _

The timer went off, and I quickly reset it to twenty minutes, ticking the next box and stirring the potion as I spoke to Keria in my mind.

_The potion won't be ready until morning._

_ Stay there until then, _Keria advised. _You're safer than we are; there are too many students in here to keep track of you all. Annona just broke down; she's in hysterics, crying about not being able to save you._

_**Annona**__ broke down? _Annona got angry sometimes, as we had discovered several times the day before, but I'd never seen her cry.

_Yeah, I know. The Headmaster is trying to comfort her. I think she's also exhausted; she was the one putting up most of the protection spells, and even they seem to be useless against whoever this is. _

I closed my eyes, blinking back tears. _Please be okay, guys. _

Keria spoke up in my mind again. _I'm going to try meditating; if this hypnotist comes again maybe I can track their mind instead of trying to track the students. Take care of each other, and I'll contact you if...if anything else happens. Oh, and don't come back to the hall, at least not without telling me first. _

_ We'll be fine. Thank you, Keria. Take care._

_ You too. _

Her voice faded from her mind, and Sammie piped up again. _What happened?_

_ Rick Bellflower. _I looked towards Popuri, sadly. _We're just going to have to take care of each other, and we're going to have to get them all back. _

_ I know we are, _agreed Sammie, lying down again, and I could feel her beginning to drift into a light sleep. I stared out the window, fighting back tears, and waited until my time was over before walking over to Cliff and shaking him awake.

He woke up a lot quicker than I did, his brown eyes snapping open the moment my hand touched his arm. "My turn?"

I nodded my head, glanced at Popuri, and then said, "Rick's been kidnapped as well."

His expression softened, and he looked at Popuri. "Oh."

I nodded solemnly, placing my hand on his arm in a friendly, comforting gesture. "We'll save them, though. We have to."

He looked at me, and a faint smile came across his face, crossing his arm over his chest to put his hand over mine. I smiled faintly back at him for a second, before explaining to him Popuri's checklist and telling him to wake Kai in forty-five minutes. He nodded in understanding, and looked, for a moment, as if he wanted to say something else to me, before he shook his head, apparently shaking away the thought, and moved over to the bench. Sammie looked up at him as he passed her, but lay down as soon as she recognised the boy. I lay down beside Popuri, who had rolled over into a somewhat uncomfortable looking position – one arm bent above her head and the other lying across her stomach, with one leg out straight and the other bent, flat foot resting on the ground. Though she was sleeping, so I guessed it was comfortable for her. I considered waking her briefly, thinking she deserved to know about her brother, before deciding I'd tell her in the morning. She needed her sleep. And, I realised as the world seemed to disappear around me, so did I.

OoO

_Claire-aire-aire-aire-aire. _

_ CL-aire-aire-aire-aire-aire_

_ CLAIRE-aire-aire-aire-aire_

_I opened my eyes. Or maybe I didn't, because I didn't open them to see the potions room. No, I opened them to see white. Not as if I was in a white room, but as if I was floating in a land of nothingness, only seeing white. And then something else came into visibility in the room. I saw a figure, which I recognised almost instantly. _

_ "MARY!" _

_ I wanted to run to her, to embrace her in a hug and to never let her go again, but I couldn't. I felt as if I was floating, and I couldn't move._

_ "Claire. Oh, thank goddess I found you." _

_ I must have looked confused, because she immediately began to explain._

_ "You're dreaming, Claire. I've managed to contact you in your dreams." _

_ My eyes widened in realisation. "You have!"_

_ The dreamer nodded her head, but then cringed. "Headaches," she explained. "There's a protective field around the place. It's why Keria can't feel our minds. It makes it so much harder for me." _

_ "Are the others okay?" _

_ "They're fine. But we can't get out, at least not on our own."_

_ "Where are you?" _

_ She frowned. "That's the problem. I don't know." _

_ "H-How are we supposed to find you, then?" _

_ She paused, and then closed her eyes, when they opened, they were glowing a bright sky blue in colour. In the whiteness that surrounded us, images began to flicker from view. They were blurry and distant, like the images you see when you try to remember an almost-forgotten dream. I was only able to make out a potion as one of them; the others were too faint. _

_ Mary blinked, and her eyes returned to their normal grey colour. "I can track you when you're asleep, sort of," she told me. "I'll know when you're getting closer. Maybe I can guide you." _

_ "What about meditation?" I said. "I might not be able to fall asleep that easily. Could you track me if I meditated?" Meditation was one of the classes at the school, as it helped to control our powers. That was why we all knew how to do it._

_ She thought for a moment. "I might be able to," she said. "I..."_

_ "Claire." Another voice entered the dream, this time it was Kai's. _

_ "He's trying to wake you up," Mary told me, and I became aware of this too, because the white that surrounded us was beginning to fade into blackness. "I'll try to contact you as much as I can." _

_ "Claire." Kai's voice was clearer this time, and I felt his hand on my arm, shaking me gently. _

_ "Take care, Claire," said Mary, her voice now becoming fainter, more distant. "Look after each other." I watched as the girl began to fade from view._

_ "We're going to save you, Mary," I said, and I heard a faint, "I know," in response before everything turned black. _

OoO

I literally shot upright, eyes snapping open, and causing Kai to jump back in surprise. "Claire!" he hissed, clearly trying not to wake the others. "Are you okay?"

"Mary. Mary contacted me. She's okay. They're okay. But I don't know for how long." I spoke quickly, but I know Kai understood what I said.

"Calm down," he murmured, shifting over to me. "Do you know where she is?"

I shook my head. "She says she might be able to track me when I sleep, or meditate. She's going to try to guide us."

He nodded his head. "We'll save them; don't worry," he murmured. I heard Cliff moan beside me, and I glanced over to see if he had woken up, but he simply rolled over and returned to sleeping.

"Is it my turn to watch over the potion?" I asked, and Kai shook his head.

"I was just about to wake Popuri up, but then you started tossing and turning really violently – you almost hit Cliff at one point, so I thought you were having a nightmare. I thought I should wake you up before you hurt yourself, or anyone else." His expression became apologetic. "I didn't realise you were talking to Mary."

"Don't worry about it." I glanced at Popuri. "I'll keep watch over the potion; I don't think I'll fall back to sleep right now anyway."

He nodded his head in understanding, and helped me up. "Wake us all up if the potion changes, otherwise just wake Popuri up instead."

I nodded, and walked over to the bench. The potion was a disgusting green colour, bubbling slightly. I made a face – we have to drink that at some point – but took my seat on the stool beside the bench. Kai watched me for a moment, before lying down, and shortly afterwards I saw his breathing become slow and even.

I stared intently at the potion, occasionally glancing out the window. It was still dark outside, but dawn was beginning to break on the horizon.

"We're coming," I whispered under my breath. "I promise."

* * *

Reviewers receive virutal lollipops.


	11. Death

Guess what! I finished my last assessment item for this term today, so I have one more day, and then two weeks of freedom! Well, technically I don't because I have homework for the holidays, and I'm going away for one week, but still! And what better way to celebrate my lack of homework than to write you a chapter?

**Review Replies**

MagicMelody: Here is your grape-flavoured lollipop! *Offers lollipop* Thanks for reviewing. You make me smile.

Invader Cakez: Aaaaah.

shoexlace: CliffxClaire is adorable and you know it.

MagicMelody(Again): No, I was not just being lazy. I haven't died or fallen off the face of the earth. I have been distracted by school, work and dance classes, and I have been emotionally falling apart from stress. But I'm back, and emotionally stable enough to write!

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Harvest Moon, there would definitely be a Harvest High School for the Gifted game.

* * *

**Chapter 11**

**Death **

The potion didn't change colour while I was on watch, nor while Popuri or Cliff were there either. It was Kai who woke us up at last, giving us all a fright as he exclaimed "Guys!"

Sammie had panicked at his sudden tone, and had barked, the combined noise waking all three of us up immediately. Popuri let out a soft squeal as she shot upright, and Cliff looked startled, glancing around nervously for the apparent source of danger.

Kai looked sheepish. "Sorry. I didn't think you'd all wake so easily," he apologised, and then gestured to the cauldron. "I think the potion is ready."

We all walked over to the bench to look into the cauldron. The potion had indeed changed colour. No longer was it the sickening green that it had been the last time I was on watch, but it was white. Not white like a piece of paper, but whiter than that. The whitest white I had ever seen. It was no longer bubbling, either. It was completely still. "If that doesn't mean it is ready," I murmured, "I don't know what does."

Kai went to the supply cupboard and pulled out a ladle, and four cups, made specially to hold the exact right volume of a potion for one person, bringing them back to the bench. The white potion remained completely still, not even rippling as he scooped a spoonful out to pour into one of the cups.

"Do we have to drink it?" murmured Popuri in a semi-whine like voice, even though she was well-aware that the answer would be yes.

"Yes, Popuri, we have to drink it," said Kai, though he grimaced at the sight of the potion in the cup.

Cliff looked at it with a frown on his face, turning the cup over in his hand. "If we've stuffed this up to make it poison and I die, I'm haunting you all in the afterlife," he said, and even I smiled slightly at the joke...for a split second before reality sunk in again. We all took our cups and lifted them.

"On three," said Kai. "One...Two...Three."

I saw my friends do the same as I lifted the cup to my lips, and then squeezed my eyes shut and let the weird, white liquid flow into my mouth. And the moment it touched my tongue, I could have sworn I was about to throw up. It tasted _disgusting_. It tasted similar to paper, with a saltiness with it, like salt water, which quickly turned into a sickeningly sweet taste before being a taste I simply could not describe, with this disgusting, almost _furry _texture. I swallowed quickly, putting my hand over my mouth and hoping I wasn't about to be sick. Popuri almost spat hers out, but managed to swallow before letting out a sound of disgust. Cliff gagged at the taste, and Kai grimaced, disappearing and appearing on the other side of the room, and then coming back. Kai often lost control of his powers when he was angry or stressed...and clearly disgusting tasting potions had the same affect.

"That," he said, "is the most horrible thing I've ever tasted in my entire life." He stuck his tongue out in disgust, as if trying to get rid of the taste. Cliff turned out to be the clever one; he took his cup over to the sink, filled it with water, and skulled the whole glass. Then he refilled it and repeated. Three times. I took a page from his book and did the same thing, and Popuri and Kai followed his lead as well. After five glasses, the taste was far subtler, but it was still there. We'd need something other than water to get rid of the taste, I knew, but we didn't have time to eat. I turned to the group.

"Any side-effects?" I asked, having learnt from Potions Class that unsuccessful potions, or sometimes successful ones, could not work on some people and cause side-effects. "Aches? Blurry vision? Nausea?"

"I feel nauseous," groaned Kai, "but I think it's just the taste." Popuri and Cliff nodded in agreement.

"Okay," I said. "Look after each other for a minute in case the side-effects suddenly turn other. I'm going to contact Keria."

I walked over to the other side of the room, figuring I'd have more luck where it was quieter, and I sat down cross-legged, taking a deep breath and closing my eyes. It was Keria with the telepathic ability, not me, so I wasn't exactly sure how I was supposed to contact her. But I slowed my breathing to help clear my mind, and I reached out in the same way that I would reach my mind out to an animal I wished to talk to. _Keria_, I thought. _Keria...Keria...Keria..._I could sense something. And it certainly wasn't an animal's mind. _Keria! _

Even through the mental connection, I could hear the girl scream, before she recognised my voice. _Oh, goddess, Claire, I'm so sorry. I'm just very tense at the moment...I wasn't expecting to be contacted. Is everything okay? _

_ Everything's fine. The potion is finished, and we've taken it. I was hoping to have Karen help us test it out._

_ That's probably a good idea. _She paused briefly, and then added, _Claire...You're planning to leave school grounds, aren't you? _

I let out a soft sigh. _We've not really spoken about it but I think we are. Please don't try to tell me otherwise. Someone needs to do it._

_ I know_. Keria's answer surprised me a little; I suppose I had expected her to tell us not to. After all, I'd tell anyone else not to. I'd hate the thought of anyone else being in danger. _I just want you to be careful. _

_ We will be. We're not going to let anything happen to anyone else. Can we come back to the hall? _

There was a brief pause before Keria responded. _Yes, you can. I'll let the headmaster know. Hurry, though...I still don't think it's safe to be outside. _With that, she ended the mental connection, and I walked back over to the group. Popuri was sitting beside Sammie, scratching the dog behind her ears, whilst Kai and Cliff were lost in a low conversation. They all looked up quickly as I approached.

"No one else has gone missing since Rick," I told them, "and Keria says it's safe to..." Popuri cut me off.

"_Rick?_" I inwardly winced. I had completely forgotten to tell her! The pink-haired girl slumped against the side of the bench, red eyes glistening with tears. "Oh...no..."

Cliff put his hand on her shoulder. "We'll rescue him, Popuri," he murmured soothingly. "We can't lose hope." She nodded meekly, and allowed the boy in brown to help her to her feet. Sammie stood up quickly as well, aware that we were about to leave. Popuri kept her eyes locked on the ground in front of her, and I know she was blinking back tears. Cliff rubbed her shoulder in a soothing manner, and murmured, "Come on. Let's go."

"Do you want me to teleport?" asked Kai, but I shook my head.

"You passed out because of overworking yourself earlier, and so we better save your energy for when we need it..."

The boy nodded in understanding. "Let's go, then," he said, and he walked towards the door.

Sammie walked in front of us, and I walked alongside Kai. Cliff stayed back with Popuri, occasionally murmuring words of comfort to the girl. I remained quiet, keeping on high alert, though it proved unnecessary with Sammie there. _Stop, _she said into my mind, the fur on the back of her neck standing up. She sniffed the air, and then, _Get back. _

I grabbed Kai's hand to get his attention, and gestured to the dog – I didn't want to risk speaking. He understood, because he began backing up immediately, gesturing to Popuri and Cliff to do the same. I kept my eyes on Sammie, who kept her stance, sniffing the air. Then I saw a shadow around the side, and Sammie stiffened. _Run! _

"Run!" I hissed, spinning around immediately, and giving Kai a push. We sprinted, trying to stay quiet but struggling to do so and be fast enough. I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew Sammie, and I knew that there was something wrong with whoever she had smelt. She knew when danger was near. We ran around the corner, and pressed ourselves up against the wall to try to stay hidden, listening. Sammie hadn't followed. I reached out to her mind, panting softly like the others were, from running and from fear. And then I stiffened, because, in Sammie's mind, I could hear someone speaking. _"Oh. Just you, mutt."_

And then pain coursed through my body.

I went to scream, and Kai slammed his hand over my mouth instinctively, eyes wide. The pain wouldn't go away, but I managed to stop myself from screaming. Tears prickled at my eyes, and I could feel my heart pounding against my chest. Kai looked beyond worried. 'Claire?' he mouthed, but I couldn't answer. It hurt. Everywhere hurt. Everything hurt.

There was a moment of silence, and then Cliff peered around the corner. "We're not being followed. Whatever it was, it's gone...Claire?"

Kai took his hand off my mouth, and I almost collapsed. The pain was dulling, but it wasn't gone. My friends looked at me with concern, when I realised something. That wasn't my pain.

It was Sammie's.

"No," I breathed, and then I pushed myself off the wall, sprinting back where we came from as fast as I could manage, ignoring the shouts of "Claire!" and "Wait!" as the others followed me.

Turning the corner to where we came from, I could see a furry figure lying limp on the ground, and I felt my breath catch in my throat. _No, no, no, no, no... _I skidded the last couple of metres on my knees, and put my hand on the dog's chest. The pain strengthened as I did, the physical connection strengthening my mental connection with her. "No, no, no!" Tears prickled at my eyes, and began to fall down my cheeks. She wasn't breathing. Behind me, I heard Popuri gasp and Kai murmur "Oh goddess no..."

"Sammie?" My voice cracked. "Sammie, please wake up. Sammie, please. Please don't leave me."

Cliff ran over, crouching on the other side of the dog, feeling for a pulse. "No..." he murmured, looking to me. Everything hurt. But my eyes widened slightly. Everything hurt. She hurt. She could feel.

"No, she's not dead," I said, tears rolling down my cheeks, my breathing becoming shallower. "She's not dead. I can feel her. Pain. She's in pain. She couldn't be in pain if she was dead." But the pain was fading away. It was getting duller by the second. I could literally feel life leaving her. This had to be what death felt like.

"Cliff," said Popuri, her voice quivering. "Annona. Healing powers. Bird. Go. Now!" Her jumbled mess of words made sense to the boy, who immediately shifted into his raven form and zoomed off towards the Great Hall. I placed my hand on Sammie's head.

"Sammie don't leave me," I whispered. Annona could heal, but she couldn't bring back from the dead. "Don't go. Sammie, fight it. Please." Tears. Tears. More tears. The pain was lessening quickly. She was too weak to hold on.

I heard footsteps; one set of them. I didn't take my eyes off the dog. Cliff, in his raven form, landed beside me before shifting back, and then Annona arrived two seconds later, immediately crouching down on the other side of the dog and placing her hand on her chest. The area below her hand glowed and she began muttering in a different language, her eyes turning the same colour as the glow as she did.

The pain was still getting weaker; it was only just there now. It felt like something was literally sucking everything she felt out her, literally sucking away her life, and I was feeling it. It was like everything was drifting away. This had to be what death felt like.

And then the dulling pain grew stronger, stronger than anything I've ever felt, and I couldn't help but scream. Cliff put his hand on my arm, and I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling nothing but pain. And then it stopped. But not in the way I wanted it to. It wasn't just the pain that stopped. Everything stopped. I felt nothing. "NO!" I screamed, more tears falling. "Sammie! No!" My hand on the dog's head moved to her chest, running through her fur, feeling for a pulse, a heartbeat, a breath...something. But there was nothing there. "SAMMIE!" I screamed again, voice craking. "Sammie, don't leave me!" More tears. I put my head down and squeezed my eyes shut tightly, breathing shallow. "Don't leave me."

I felt Cliff put his hand on my shoulder, and I heard Popuri sniff. Annona took her hand off the dog's chest, and looked at me, the sincerest look of sadness and sympathy in her eyes. More tears fell.

"Don't..." I whispered, running my hands through her fur. "Don't leave me."

_I'm not going anywhere. _

My eyes snapped open, and I looked down. "Sammie?" I whispered. _Please tell me I heard that. Please tell me I didn't just imagine it. _Nothing happened for a good moment, and my tears were still falling, when the dog's eyes slowly opened.

"Sammie?" I whispered again, a little more hopeful, and the dog tilted her head to look at me.

_Thank Annona for me. _

"Oh thank goddess." I lifted the dog into my lap, holding her tightly. I ran my hand through her fur, stroking her head, her neck, and her back. She licked my hand, and I held her tighter. "I thought I lost you..."

_You're not getting rid of me that easily. _She was weak, I could feel it, but her tail lifted, wagging slightly, and I knew that she was going to be all right.

* * *

I may or may not have cried in the writing of this chapter.


	12. Out

Without anything to study for, I had almost nothing to do today, and the number of reviews that I got for the last chapter made me far too happy, and so I simply could not resist writing another chapter for it. This story is just sort of writing itself at the moment - Sammie was not supposed to have a near-death incident in the last chapter, she just did, and the events of this chapter were not entirely planed either - but I'm liking the way this is turning out, and I'm hoping you are too.

**Review Replies**

FlamingIceWolfGirl: I'm glad you liked it. Poor Sammie. But she's okay. :)

Lauren: Your pairing has been taken into consideration, and I appreciate your opinion. 

MagicMelody: That would certainly make for an interesting twist, but unfortunately, the bad guy has already been chosen and so that part of the plot is fixed. I appreciate your opinion though. As for whether or not I plan to buy _The Tale of Two Towns_...If I can, I will. Being Australian means that not all the games come out here.

shadow100: *Hands tissue* Aww, thank you!

Invader Cakez: Hurray for Sammie being alive! *Hands tissue* I couldn't let her die. I wuv her too much.

weirdogirl: I'm so glad you thought so! I'm glad you're enjoying this. :)

**Disclaimer: **I lack ownage of _Harvest Moon_. **  
**

* * *

**Chapter 12**

**Out**

"We have to go."

I looked up at Annona from where I was sitting, holding Sammie tightly on my lap. A part of me just wanted to sit there forever, and never let the dog go again. But a bigger part of me was slightly more logical than that; if whatever had almost killed Sammie was still here we needed to get inside as quickly as possible. Now under the affect of the anti-hypnosis potion, inside was far safer for us.

Sammie climbed out of my lap, her legs shaking slightly as she moved for the first time after being literally brought back from the dead. Cliff took my hand and helped me to my feet, and then I picked the dog up as well so she wouldn't have to walk. Sam wasn't a particularly large dog; she was a little heavy but I could still carry her. And really, I just needed to have her close to me, so I could rely on her feel, and her scent to know that she was still there, rather than just her sight and sound. I had been too close to losing her. I didn't care that people say she's an animal, a "pet". She was not a pet to me. She was a best friend.

Annona looked among our group briefly, and then swiftly walked to the front. "Come, we must hurry," she said, her voice soft and melodic. Her long dress trailed along the ground behind her as she walked; head moving from side to side as she scanned for danger. We followed closely behind, all sticking together. Cliff walked beside me, and Kai and Popuri followed directly behind, so close that they were almost stepping on our heels. I think I was kind of comforted by this. I think we all were. And we were all beyond relieved when we got to the Great Hall without further issues, Annona magically closing the door behind us.

I slumped against the door, and then slid down to the ground, Sammie still in my arms. _How are you doing? _I asked her, but with a connection like ours, I already knew the answer.

_I don't know; I feel weird. I suppose being brought back from the dead is not something we were meant to do. But I'm okay. I'm glad; I don't want to leave you._

I ran my hand down her back and back up again, scratching behind the ears. _Who...or...What...did that to you? Did you see them? _

_ She was wearing a cloak. At least, I think it was a "she". She was very skinny, and she was wearing a purple cloak with a hood, so I couldn't see her face. _

I sighed softly. This gave us no leads whatsoever, except for the fact that this person – if it was, in fact, the same person who kidnapped our friends – was a female. And that did not help us at all.

Kai knelt down beside me, giving Sammie a brief pat. "We don't know how long the potion lasts," he murmured. "I think we should see that it works, and then...leave." That was the first time any of us had addressed it aloud, but I think we all knew that that was what we were planning to do. I nodded my head, and looked back to Sammie._ Can you walk?_

The dog responded by cautiously climbing out of my lap, moving all four of her legs to make sure that she was okay. They were still shaking ever so slightly, but she replied with _Yeah, I'm fine._

I stood again, and looked around, before my eyes widened. "Where's Cliff?"

Popuri gave me a reassuring look. "Don't panic; he's gone to go find Karen." I sighed in relief; for a moment, I had thought...I was just glad he was fine.

Right on cue, Cliff weaved his way back through the crowd, Karen following closely behind. Looking around the Great Hall, I could see that some people had only just woken up, though a lot of them looked as if they had been awake all through the night. Karen was one of them. I think she and Rick were childhood friends, so it was kind of understandable.

"What do you need?" she asked, crossing her arms on her chest and rocking her weight onto one leg. I think she was going for the nonchalant 'I don't care' look, but her red-rimmed eyes and the dark bags underneath said otherwise. I glanced around at the group before deciding that I was clearly the one they wanted to speak.

"We made the anti-hypnosis potion. We want to be sure that it works."

She sighed slightly, and looked around at our small group, before walking over to Kai. She stepped in front of him, as close as she could manage so that they were almost touching, and let her face linger mere centimetres from his. Her green eyes flickered in colour. "_Kiss me._"

Kai looked her in the eye, and waited two seconds before answering. "No."

We all let out a sigh of relief, and Karen stepped back. "Hm. For a moment I was hoping you were unsuccessful," she muttered, and I wasn't sure if she was joking or not, before she turned and walked away. I looked over at the group.

"I don't know how long we have until the potion wears off," I said. "And we don't know how long until..." I paused, thinking of our friends, who-knows-where with who-knows-what happening to them. "...until anything happens. We should leave, and soon."

Nods and sounds of agreement came from all of my friends, including Sammie, and I looked around, my eyes meeting with Annona's, who was walking towards us. I felt myself tense slightly; I was not interested in being told off by know-it-all Annona for our absolutely crazy and extremely life-threatening plan.

"Annona," I began. "I know you think we're crazy, but you can't tell us not to, because we ha..."

"I know."

I stared at her. "You're..._not _yelling at us?"

Annona sighed. "Even if I did, it wouldn't stop you. I just thought you'd like someone to let the force-field down for you."

I blinked – Annona was not only allowing us to leave school grounds but _helping us_ too? – but then smiled. "Thank you."

Annona only smiled in response.

She led us out of the Great Hall and through the school grounds, all of us keeping close together as we had before, and Sammie making sure to stay by my side, just in case. To all of our reliefs, we got to the edge of the school safely. Annona reached up, and placed her hand on the force-field, which shimmered into view as she did, before more or less dissolving before our eyes.

"Be careful," she murmured, as we looked out past the school. "Take care of each other."

"We will," said Kai, glancing at the young woman before looking at us. "Ready?"

"I hope so," I murmured, and Popuri and Cliff too made sounds of agreement. We exchanged glances, and then we stepped outside the school, the force-field closing behind us.

OoO

None of us were really sure where we were going – we just chose a direction and walked – but we knew that walking anywhere was more productive than standing around. The worst possible case scenario would be that we would find out that we were heading in the wrong direction, cancel that option out, and Kai could teleport us back so that we were on the right path. I had tried contacting Mary, but to no avail, which worried me slightly. I only hope that the only reason I was unsuccessful in contacting her was because it was still morning, and perhaps she was not asleep. It was a legitimate reason. I just hoped it was correct.

I heard something, sort of like a gush of wind, but isolated to one spot. And there was no wind; everything was still. I tensed, and spun around, but saw nothing. Maybe I imagined it, I thought, but as I turned around, I heard it again.

"Claire?" Cliff asked, looking at me with a frown. I must have looked confused, which I was.

"Didn't you guys hear that?" I received confused looks from all of them, including Sammie. "...Maybe I imagined it."

But then there it was again, right behind me, and it sent shivers down my spine. "There!"

"Claire..." said Kai slowly. "I don't hear anything."

"I'm not crazy I swear," I said, looking around. "It's like...I don't know what it – Ah!"

I let out a slight scream as something brushed past me, jumping forward. "What was that!"

"...What?" asked Kai, looking around.

"S-Something...brushed past me..."

"I didn't see anything."

I bit my lip, looking around worriedly. "I...I'm going crazy, aren't I?"

The other three just looked at me for a moment, before Cliff said, "We need to keep moving."

I nodded slightly, and he gently took hold of my hand, giving me a gentle tug to get me walking again.

But I swear I'm not crazy. And I swear, out of the corner of my eye, for a second, I saw something glowing white.

* * *

A little short, I know. I had some trouble writing this due to my brother and sister fighting/screaming at each other in a nearby room, but I hope it's okay.

Reviews, as I'm sure you've worked out, make me happy, and also make me write faster.


	13. The Walk

Do you hate me? You probably should; I've been absolutely awful when it comes to updating. I'm so, so sorry. Exam period had me beyond stressed, to the point where I couldn't write even if I tried. Everything that came out was awful and I didn't want to give you that. Again, I'm so, so sorry. You have every reason to be mad at me. I'm on holidays until February, though, so I'll try to update more. Again, please forgive me.

**Review Replies**

Greil9: You should have said something! I was worried that I was going to make things move too fast, hence why I was slowing it down. Constructive criticism is always appreciated! Thank you for the review. :)

weirdogirl: My apologies for not updating 'soon'. You will soon find out what the glowing thing was, though. Very soon indeed...

FlamingIceWolfGirl: What is following them? Well, you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?

Invader Cakez: I like randomness. BOOP!

MagicMelody (All THREE reviews): I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so, so, so sorry. Please forgive me? Please?

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Harvest Moon, you'd probably never receive any games, on account of it would take as long for me to design them as it does for me to update. ...Sorry.

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**Chapter 13**

**The Walk**

There are many words I could use to describe the walk that day, and not one of them is positive.

For one thing, it was _exhausting_. After what I assume was a couple of hours (though none of us had any way of being absolutely sure), we had all stopped for a short break in which I sat down and tried to contact Mary again. To my relief, I was successful; she was taking a nap with the hope that I would contact her at one point, as I did. She told me that I felt closer this time, but not by much – we were going in the right direction, but there was still a long way to go. We suggested teleportation, but Kai informed us that he could not actually teleport to a place unless he could visualise it in his mind. We didn't know where we were going or what our location looked like, so we couldn't teleport. And so that left only one option – we had to walk. And walk we did, _all _day. My legs ached and I wanted nothing more than to collapse on the ground and sleep forever, but we had to rescue our friends and family first. They were more important.

Along with being exhausting, it was tedious. At first we were all jumpy and uncertain, creeping along silently and only speaking in whispers, but after what I assume was an hour we realised that it was only slowing us down, and we could probably talk normally. This decision was followed by silence, because none of us knew what to talk about. All of our minds were on our friends and what danger lay ahead of us, and I believe we all wanted to talk and lighten the mood, but at the same time say nothing at all. And so the walk was silent, and tedious. I swear we were going in circles; every tree appeared exactly the same and I know I made a comment of "Haven't we already passed that rock?" at least twice. But we were walking in a straight line, so it just meant that the forest wasn't particularly varied.

Finally, I'd also describe the walk, particularly the start, as terrifying. We were all jumpy; every rustle of leaves or crack of twigs underfoot left us tense and looking about fearfully, expecting something to jump out at us at any minute. To my relief, nothing did, but I saw things – glowing white in the corner of my eye that seemed to vanish every time I turned to look at them – which no one else saw. And a couple of times I'd feel things brush past me, but the others would look at me like I was crazy and I knew that they saw nothing there. Maybe I was hallucinating, I realised. Maybe the fear, along with the exhaustion, was messing with my mind. How else would I be seeing and feeling things that my friends did not?

The sun was beginning to sink below the horizon when we finally decided to stop, the trees casting large shadows around the forest in the red-orange glow of the sunset. Cliff was the one to speak up, to say that we needed to stop, and the moment we had been given the invitation, we all collapsed onto the ground. Popuri curled into a ball by bringing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, Kai lay down on his back, and Cliff came and sat next to me. Sammie immediately rolled onto her back and closed her eyes.

"We don't know how long we have to walk and we might need our energy when we get there," Cliff said, his voice soft, and I recognised the fearful tone he used. I subtly slipped my hand into his and gave it a comforting squeezed, allowing my lips to twitch slightly as he squeezed it back.

Popuri looked around. "We don't know what's out here," she murmured. "Maybe we should take turns sleeping like we did with the potion." Her idea was met by a murmur of agreement from each of us.

"We don't have anything to use to time how long each of us stays up this time, though," Kai said.

"Maybe we can each stay up until we feel ourselves dozing off," replied Popuri, "and then wake someone else up." None of us had any better ideas, so all we could do was agree.

"I'll go first," Kai decided, sitting up.

"I'll go second," I answered immediately, and it was quickly decided that Cliff would go third and Popuri fourth, and then the process would repeat. We also decided that if anything was making us nervous we should wake Sammie, and if she decided that she could smell something off in the air or she felt there was legitimate reason to be afraid, then we'd wake everyone else up.

"Sleep well, guys," Kai murmured, looking around before deciding on the best spot to sit while he was on watch. Sammie crawled over to sit beside him, making sure she was facing in the other direction so that she'd be able to better smell the things behind him that he was less likely to see. Popuri joined Cliff and I, lying beside me. She closed her eyes, and her breathing evened relatively quickly – I wasn't surprised she was so exhausted. I rolled over to fall asleep, and found Cliff's eyes were open, just staring into the distance. When he realised I was looking at him, his eyes locked on mine, and I could see that they were shining slightly with unshed tears. I put my hand on his shoulder.

"They'll be okay," I whispered. "We all will." He nodded meekly, closing his eyes and pushing back the tears before he opened them again.

"Thank you, Claire," he whispered. "For everything."

He seemed to hesitate for a moment, before he leaned forward and gently placed his lips on my forehead, just for a second, before rolling over. I felt my cheeks turn pink, and I watched him for a moment, before whispering, "Goodnight," and forcing my eyes shut.

OoO

"_Claire?" _

_ I opened my eyes. Well, not really – I knew immediately that I was still asleep, still dreaming, but I figuratively opened my eyes at the unforgettable sound of Mary's voice. I suppose figuratively opening my eyes is literally opening my mind, or something along those lines, but that was something to think about later. I was floating in white again, and Mary was there. Her face was paler than usual, her eyes red-rimmed, and though she was smiling, it wasn't a happy smile. It was a broken one._

_ "I can sense you a lot clearer," she told me. "You're getting closer. I know you are." _

_ "That's a relief," I murmured. "Do you know where you are? Or who's doing this?" To my disappointment, she shook her head._

_ "It's all fuzzy and unclear. It's like there are holes in my memory, and I don't know why." _

_ "It's because you're being hypnotised," I murmured, realising we hadn't told the dreamer this yet. "We think that whoever's doing this is hypnotising you, which explains why you don't remember certain things."_

_ "That makes sense..." A thoughtful look came over her grey eyes, and she nodded her head before focussing on me again. "I wish I was more help." _

_ "You're doing the best that you..." I began, but cut myself off as there sounded a scream throughout the dream. It was strange – I knew it wasn't coming from my reality, and I knew it wasn't me or Mary. Which meant...it was coming from her reality. She had come to the same realisation._

_ "Ann," she whispered. "I'm sorry, Claire, I have to go." She closed her eyes, and immediately began to fade from view, everything falling into darkness. The last thing I heard was the sound of a cry for help, before everything went black. _

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Again, I'm so sorry.


	14. Spirits

Hi guys! I figured, after my far-too-long hiatus, you deserved a quick update. Anyone who has actually stuck with me despite how long it takes me to update...thank you so much.

**Review Replies**

FlamingIceWolfGirl: So many questions indeed. Well, at least one of them shall be answered today. Thank youfor reviewing; I was beginning to think you'd all given up on me.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harvest Moon.

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**Chapter 14**

**Spirits **

My eyes snapped open, taking a minute to focus in the dull light of the moon. I was shaking slightly, I realised, as I propped myself up on my hands. Both Cliff and Popuri were still fast asleep, and in the silver-white light I could see from the tear-tracks that the latter had been crying. I blinked a few times, letting my eyes focus more before they drifted over to where Kai was sitting. I noticed the way he was sitting upright, but beginning to slouch towards one side, blinking slowly.

"Kai," I hissed, loud enough to startle him but not to wake the other two. I stood up cautiously, stepping past Cliff and Popuri and over to the teleporter. "You're falling asleep; you should have woken me."

"I'm not falling a-" he began, voice slightly slurred (just proving my point), but I cut him off.

"Yes you are, idiot. Good thing I woke up when I did. Go get some rest."

"Fine," he sighed, rubbing his eyes, and then he looked at me and his brow furrowed. "You're shaking."

My shoulders sagged, and I sat down on the ground beside him. "Mary," I murmured softly. "She contacted me again; she was telling me that there are black spots in her memory..."

"From the hypnotism?" Kai suggested, coming to the same conclusion I had, and I nodded my head.

"We think so. But...Kai, we heard Ann screaming."

"Oh no," he murmured, and I nodded again.

"I-If you had heard it," I said, voice cracking slightly. "She was crying out for help and her voice sounded so broken and so afraid and..." He put his hand on my arm.

"We're going to find them, Claire," he said, voice firm. "Before anything happens."

I nodded. It was all I could do. This was all we could do. We had to keep moving, and hope to Goddess that we would get to them before it was too late. Breaking down into tears would get us nowhere. I took a deep, shaky breath, and nodded again. "You should get some rest."

He nodded his head in agreement, glancing over at Kai and Popuri. "Wake Cliff as soon as you become tired," he instructed me. "And don't do what I did and pretend you're fine if you're not." My lips twitched upwards slightly, and I rolled my eyes. "Night, Kai."

He returned to the spot I had been lying before, and his breathing evened out in a matter of seconds.

I took his spot next to Sammie, seeing the dog twitch as I sat down and open her eyes briefly, before recognising me and knowing I wasn't a threat, and letting herself fall back into her light sleep. I sighed softly and looked around. The forest was so eerie, a part of me wanted to just wake Sammie immediately so that she was completely alert, but she needed sleep as much as the rest of us did. I needed to only wake her if I was actually in danger, or legitimately felt I was. Not because the sound of the wind rustling the leaves in the otherwise silent forest was frightening. Not because the shadows dancing in the light of the moon made me a little skittish. And not because of the...

_Claire._

I started, looking around, but I couldn't pinpoint the location of the voice. It didn't sound like it was coming from anywhere in the forest, but it sounded like it was in my mind. I'd shrug it off as merely my imagination, but it wasn't a voice I recognised.

_Claire. _

Whatever it was drew my name out, the voice soft, distant, and very, very eerie. I looked around again, and I saw glowing white out of the corner of my eye, floating as fast as lightning behind a tree and vanishing from sight.

"S-Sammie..." I stammered. _I'm not crazy, I swear. _Her ear twitched and she opened one eye.

_I don't smell any –_

_ Claire._

The dog's voice in my mind was cut off by the eerie, unfamiliar one as it spoke my name again, another glow of white zooming past out of the corner of my eye, passing behind me. A cold breeze joined it, isolated to that one spot where the glow had been, making me shiver and wrap my arms around myself.

Sammie was up and alert immediately, facing in the other direction. _Whose voice was that, in your mind? _

_ I don't know, _I answered, feeling myself beginning to shake again. _I think we should wake the..._

_ Claire._

I didn't get to finish my sentence, because then the glowing white was directly in front of me. Not just one, but several, maybe hundreds, surrounding me. And they weren't shapeless, either. They were the shape of animals. Dogs, birds, wolves, mice...there were animals of all shapes and sizes, staring at me with dull, lifeless eyes. I let out a scream, going to scamper backwards before I realised that they were surrounding me.

"Wh-What do you want?" I stammered, voice shaking as I looked around fearfully at the glowing white animals.

_She killed us, Claire._ Their voices were an eerie monotone, all completely simultaneously, not like they were all speaking at the same time but like only one was speaking with many different voices. I heard them in my mind, but I could see their mouths moving. _She killed all of us._

"Who did? Who killed you?"

_She killed us._

_ She tortured us._

_ She murdered us. _

Sammie was barking, loudly, spinning in circles, but that sounded distant. As did her voice in my mind as she tried to get through to me. I did work out, though, that she couldn't see them.

_She killed us, Claire. She killed us. She killed us. SHE KILLED US._

They let out a scream, this one not sounding like one voice but like hundreds, and they all flew in every direction, some of them towards me, some of them away, some of them down, and some of them up. I squeezed my eyes shut, pain suddenly coursing through my body, not unlike what I had felt when Sammie had almost died, and I heard a scream, realising that this one was coming from me. The ones that flew towards me went right through me, and the part of my body they touched felt as if it had been splashed with ice-cold water, colder than anything I'd ever felt before. I was shaking, too afraid to open my eyes. I heard voices – these ones I recognised as my friends – and footsteps hurrying towards me. Sammie was still barking, and I felt someone touch my arm. I flinched away from the touch, curling up into a ball, shaking.

"Claire, it's me." That was Cliff's voice, soft and concerned. "It's okay. It's just us. You're safe."

He touched my arm again, this time more hesitant, and when he was sure I wasn't going to flinch away from it again, he moved it along my back and gently brought me into his arms. Physical touch has always been comforting to me, and I needed it this time, burying my face in his shoulder and holding him close. _I'm safe, _I told myself. _They're here. I'm safe. _I felt someone else rubbing my back – I was pretty sure that was Kai – and Sammie pawed gently at my leg.

After several long moments, I finally had gained enough composure to open my eyes, pulling away from Cliff, who released his hold on me but kept his hand on my arm. Kai crouched down beside me, hand still on my back, and Popuri was sitting in front. "What happened, Claire?" she murmured softly, gently.

I glanced over at Sammie. "Didn't you see them?" I asked, and she immediately answered with _See what? _

"They were...they were like...ghosts...or spirits..." I said slowly. "Of animals...They were glowing white and floating and there were hundreds of them." My talking must have picked up speed, because Cliff moved his hand down to mine and squeezed it, whilst Kai rubbed my back. I took a deep breath before I continued. "They were talking...into my mind or something. They kept saying that she killed them."

"Who?" Popuri asked.

"I don't know. They just said 'she'." I took another deep, shaky breath. "I don't understand. Who were they? Why...Why couldn't you see them?"

There was a short moment of silence, before Kai murmured, "I don't know, Claire. I don't know."

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Did I answer your questions, or did I just create more? What did you think?


	15. Still Walking

You guys are back and reviewing again! I thought I lost most of you. You all make me happy.

**Review Replies**

FlamingIceWolfGirl: I'm very glad that you found the chapter well-written. I was worried I hadn't done it justice. Also, thank you, as you've stuck with this story through my horribly longg, reason-less hiatuses and you still review. Thank you.

InvaderCakez: I will take your speechlessness at a good thing.

shoexlace: I'm glad you approve of the CliffxClaire. ;) Thanks for reviewing! :)

MagicMelody: I missed your reviews. I'm glad you're back and even more that you are enjoying this story. I'll check out your own stories sometime. :)

Someone: Is it, is it? You shall see.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Harvest Moon_. Surprised?

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**Chapter 15**

**Still Walking **

I don't really remember what happened last night, after that encounter, but I suppose I must have fallen asleep, as the next thing I knew was that the sun was beginning to rise, light streaming into the still eerie (even in daytime) forest. Everyone else was already awake. It was clear that Cliff was the one to have the last shift in staying awake, and as he was after me, but he couldn't have possibly been the only one to stay awake for that whole time, I realised that they had continued rotating but skipped me. A part of me was not happy about this; I don't want to be the reason that they feel they need to protect me and endanger themselves instead, but a part of me didn't care because I know I couldn't deal with an encounter like that again.

Kai walked over to me once he realised I was awake, offering his hand and helping me to my feet. "Are you feeling better?"

I nodded meekly, crossing my arms over my body as if I were hugging myself and looking around. No sign of glowing white lights; of spirits and ghosts of animals, thank goddess. I don't know who they were, who killed them, or what they wanted from me, but I had never had such a terrifying experience in my entire life (with the exception of Sammie's almost-death, of course). Kai looked at me with sympathy, and placed his hand on my shoulder. "We're going to have to keep moving," he told me, and I nodded my head once more, showing that I understood. I didn't want to speak. He nodded in response, and walked back over to Cliff and Popuri. Sammie waited patiently until he had gone before she came up to me, sitting by my feet and placing her paw on my foot.

_You're going to be okay, Claire. _

_ I hope so_, I replied, crouching down to scratch her neck gently. _I just wish I knew what it all meant and why none of you can see them. I'm not hallucinating._

_ No, you're not, _she agreed. _I could hear them, through your mind. They were real...whatever they were. I wish I could help you._

She glanced towards the others, who were clearly ready to leave, and then the two of us walked over to join the group once more. And then, once again, we walked.

Naturally, the walk was in silence, and I swear you could feel the fear radiating from us. I wasn't the only one who was so jumpy this time; we were all starting at every sound, even the things as simple as a leave brushing against another in the wind. Sammie led the group, nose on the ground as she tried to pick up anything that did not smell like forest. Evidently, she was not finding this at all easy; I could hear her mind as she became frustrated with the fact that nothing was working. The sun was high in the sky when we stopped – we had been walking for at least six hours straight now and Sammie was apparently not getting anything; we felt as if we were no closer than we were when we started.

"I'll try to contact Mary," I said, speaking for the first time that day. My voice was so weak and quiet; I hardly sounded like myself. I sat down where I was, crossing my legs, closing my eyes and opening my mind. But it wasn't like any other time that I had contacted her. It wasn't like I was unsuccessful, but I didn't see her this time. I heard her, though. Her voice was even weaker than mine.

_Cl-aire. Cl ... elp. _

It was like talking through a telephone when you have very bad connection and the voice of the person on the other end keeps dropping out, so you only hear certain words. I wondered if she could hear me.

_Mary, I can't hear you. What's going on? Are you okay?_

_ Can't ... mind ... hurts too ... sorry ... los ... _And then I heard a scream, and this time I knew who it was from.

_Mary! _

And then our mental connection cut out and I heard nothing.

My eyes snapped open, my breathing short and shaky. "Something's wrong," I said quickly, as expressions of absolute horror came across the faces of the others. "I couldn't contact her properly and it was all disjointed and distant and then she screamed and now I can't hear anything and..." I was starting to hyperventilate, starting to shake again. Kai ran to my side and put his hand on my knee, though I knew he was just as afraid as I was.

"Claire, if you have a panic attack it will get us nowhere. We are going to rescue them. We need to find them. Breathe, please."

I focussed on my breathing and managed to slow it down, whispering a frightened, broken, "Okay." Once again, he helped me to my feet and then faced the rest of the group. I could see this leadership quality in him as he addressed everyone.

"We need to keep moving, and we need to hurry."

"We don't know where we're going!" exclaimed Popuri, her voice higher than usual (as it was when she was afraid). "Kai, we don't know what to-"

I let out a scream, grabbing onto Kai's arm, and drawing everyone's attention to me. My eyes locked on a tree in front of us, where I had seen the glowing white light dart behind. I could see it there, floating. It was a dog – well, it was dog-shaped anyway – and it was floating there by the tree, watching me with lifeless, empty eyes.

_I can't do this again, I can't do this again, I can't do this again..._

It watched me, not moving towards me but not vanishing either. I think the others were staring at me, but I focussed purely on the spirit before me. It continued to watch me, before nodding its head in a direction, and then beginning to float that way.

"I-I think it wants us to follow..." I murmured, uncertainly. Kai voiced my fear of doing so.

"Oh yes, follow the creepy spirit that only Claire can see. _Are you crazy_?"

It was waiting for me, watching.

"It might be the only chance we've got..." I didn't take my eyes off the spirit, didn't glance at any of the others, but I followed it. A part of me thought I was crazy – these were the spirits I had been terrified of just the previous night. But a part of me knew that it wanted me to follow, and, for unknown reasons, thought it was a good idea.

"Claire!" I heard someone shout behind me, but I could hear footsteps – they were all following.

The spirit would linger in one place until I got within a few centimetres of it, and then it would dart off again, lingering again a little further away. I glanced back only once at my friends, who were following me with clear uncertainty, but I continued to follow the spirit.

I could feel a buzzing in my mind that I could not explain, but it was getting stronger as I continued to follow the spirit.

"Claire..." murmured Popuri behind me, but I continued to follow. After who knows how long, the spirit, instead of darting away when I got to it, stopped and waited, looking at me.

_Only you can set us free_.

And then, once more, it darted away, this time not reappearing, but it didn't need to. We had reached a clearing in the forest, and there stood a small hut before us. It was not like what I imagined we'd find, but I knew that this was it.

"I'm scared," Popuri whispered, as we stared at the hut from the shade of the trees around us. Kai nodded his head slightly.

"We can't back down now. Our friends need us." Popuri nodded her head slightly.

"This is it."

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I don't like the ending to this, but I couldn't work out anything better. I hope you liked the chapter, though. Oh! And Merry Belated Christmas!


	16. The Hut

Well, I guess my productive-ness sort of wore off. My apologies for the wait, guys. And also for the fact that this isn't the most interesting of chapters (I'm warning you now, so you don't get too excited.)

Something you can get excited about, however, is the fact that I realised today that this story is currently my longest so far. Isn't this exciting!

**Review Replies**

Greil9: Oh dear, you must hate me. I made this chapter a little longer, so I hope it satisfies you, slightly.

FlamingIceWolfGirl: I love your reviews, you know. You make me happy. I'm flattered that you think I'm a good writer.

snowflower90: Whoops! Anyone who doesn't know, Snowflower here pointed out the fact that Claire's dog, Sammie, appears to change names now and then. I realised this a few weeks ago when I read through my older chapters. I called her Sadie at one point, and Clara at another, mixing her up with other stories. My deepest apologies for that. I hope I haven't made the mistake more recently. Thanks for reviewing, Snowflower!

Yako-chan278: Busted. Well, I didn't completely base it off Sky High - I have a thing for magic school stories - but I did take some inspiration from Sky High. And also some from Harry Potter. I'm glad you're enjoying this, and thanks for reviewing!

0-MagicMelody-0: I do hope you're no longer suffering from whooping cough. I had the same thing about a year ago, made worse by the fact that I'm asthmatic, and I know how awful it is. If not already, please feel better soon. And thank you for your review!

Invader Cakez: *Still taking the fact that you're speechless as a good thing*

Have I ever told you how much I love you guys? Yes? Well, I'm saying it again. Your reviews make my world brighter.

**Disclaimer:** and any of its' characters.

* * *

**Chapter 16**

**The Hut **

There was a good minute where we all just stood in complete silence, hidden by the trees, staring at the hut. The same thoughts were going through all of our minds – none of us really wanted to go in there, but all of us knew that we had to, and all of us wanted to save our friends. It was strange; the hut was so small, so...quaint, it didn't look like something we should fear, but that only made us fear it more. Somehow, in some unknown way, in that quaint little hut, our friends were being tortured.

"We shouldn't all go in there together," Kai said softly, breaking the silence. "If anything is in there, we don't all want to be together. In case any of us need to be rescued." There was a soft murmur of agreement from the group.

I crouched down on the ground, absently playing with Sammie's fur as I spoke to the dog telepathically. After a couple of moments, I straightened up again.

"My connection with Sammie is stronger than it is with other animals," I explained. "We should still be able to communicate if I'm in the hut. I'll go in first, and I can let you know through her if it's safe."

"We don't speak dog, though," Popuri commented, but Sammie and I had already discussed that.

"One bark means I need help, and two means you should stay where you are." I thought for a minute. I wasn't going to put my friends' lives in danger if I knew they had no way of escape. I bit my lip, and glanced down at Sammie. She'd not like this. "Sam," I said aloud, but repeated it in my mind so she'd understand. "You'll know if something goes wrong, and if it does, I want you to bark three times." I looked around the group. "If that happens, I want you to run."

"No!" Everyone responded simultaneously, and Sammie barked.

"Claire, we're not going to leave you behind!" Popuri exclaimed, but I shook my head.

"If I tell you to run, through Sammie, I want you to do it. If I tell you to run it will mean that there is no other way. It'll mean that coming in will get you killed. There's no use you trying to be heroes if I know that it won't work." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Promise me you'll get yourselves out?"

There was a muffled sob, and then Popuri had thrown herself into my arms. "I don't want you to die, Claire," she choked, and I hugged her back.

"I don't want you guys to die either."

She finally pulled away from me, but she nodded her head, and I knew that she was telling me that she'd do as I said. Kai did the same. Not Cliff, however. Cliff had a look of great determination on his face.

"I'm coming in with you."

I opened my mouth to respond, but he cut me off. "Two is stronger than one. I'm not letting you go in there alone."

My eyes met his, and if I knew Cliff, I knew that he wouldn't let me disagree. "Okay," I breathed.

He took my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, before saying, "First things first, we need to find a way in. Stay here and wait for me." Then he shifted into his raven form, and flew out, keeping a distance so he was subtle but scouting the area. We waited in silence, Kai with his hand on my shoulder and Popuri clinging onto my arm. None of us wanted to die, but I think we all feared the worst.

Raven Cliff returned, shifting back into his human form. "There's a window at the back, but it's small. We should fit, though. I can't see anyone in the room it leads to, but judging by the size of the hut there will be at least two, maybe three more and it's so small that we could easily be heard."

"It's a risk we're going to have to take," I said, feeling myself begin to shake slightly in fear but trying to hide this. "Cliff, I can still communicate with you when you're a raven, right?" He nodded his head, and I continued. "Fly over there and double check that the coast is clear, and then I'll follow." He nodded again.

"Be careful, Cliff," Popuri murmured, hugging the boy in turn as she had done to me. "Be careful, both of you."

Kai did the same, hugging him loosely but the meaning behind it was there. Take care, be careful, and please, please don't die.

I saw Cliff take one long, shaky breath before he shifted into his raven form, flying out in silence towards the other side of hut. Again, we waited in silence, Popuri returning to clinging onto my arm until I heard Cliff's voice in my mind. _It's clear. Come. _

I glanced at Popuri, and I didn't have to say a word. She released my arm, and took a step back, and I took a deep breath. "I'll see you guys soon," I whispered, managing a half smile, before I ran, as silent but as fast as I could manage. Cliff was waiting for me in his human form. I skidded to a stop, pressing my back against the side of the hut, below the window. We listened, but heard nothing.

Cliff leaned towards me, whispering so softly that I had to strain to hear him despite the fact that his lips were millimetres from my ear. "The window's too high; I'll give you a boost."

He got down in his hands and knees, and I carefully clambered onto his back, hoping I wouldn't hurt him. He made no sound or gesture of being in pain, so I just hoped he was fine.

I raised my head slowly, at first only peeking through the window to double check that I was alone, before straightening up properly. I put one hand on the windowsill to support me, and then placed my hand on the glass, before swearing softly to myself.

"What is it?" Cliff hissed as I climbed off his back, crouching down beside him.

"It's locked, and opens from the inside."

A look of frustration came across his face, but then his eyes lit up. "Kai."

We raced back to the shelter of the trees, me wondering why Kai hadn't volunteered to go with me if he could teleport inside, and also mentally hitting myself for not thinking of that before. Kai and Popuri both looked confused when we got back. "What happened?" asked the latter.

"The window's locked from the inside. Kai, you can teleport, why didn't we think of it earlier?"

Kai shifted slightly. "I did. I can feel it; there's a field around the hut. Not a force field, but a different type of field."

"Mary had mentioned something," I said, uncertainly. "A protective field around the place. She said it was the reason why Keria couldn't feel their minds and why it was so hard for her to contact us." Kai nodded his head.

"Any connection between inside that hut and outside is difficult to make, and that's going to include teleporting. I might be able to do it, but it will be weakening, and I couldn't get you in. In fact, I think I could only manage one teleport myself."

"Oh," I breathed, keeping frustration out of my voice. This was hopeless. What were we going to do?"

"But," he continued. "It looks like our only chance. I can teleport inside and get the window open, but I can't go with you from there. I'll be too weak, and I'll slow you down. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise," I said immediately. "Getting the window open will be enough. Popuri, follow us over. If Kai's too weak, he'll need your support getting back here."

Like before, Cliff flew over to make sure the coast was clear, and then the three of us rushed after him, leaving Sammie behind to keep watch of that area. We crouched below the window, silent. Kai looked at us, and then nodded his head, but Popuri put her hand on his arm before he could disappear. She reached into her pink hair, and pulled out a bobby pin. 'Lock' she mouthed and he understood, taking hold of the hair accessory. He clasped it in his hand, and then closed his eyes, and vanished from sight.

We waited in complete silence, intentionally keeping our breathing shallow so that even that was as silent as could manage. We kept our gazes fixed on the window above our head that Kai was trying to unlock from the other side. The time seemed to tick on and on forever, but finally, there was a soft creak, and the window was pushed open.

Kai climbed out first, with a fair bit of difficulty given the size of the window, but he managed, and we all noticed immediately how pale he was. He looked ready to pass out at any second. He couldn't even stand up straight; he collapsed against Popuri's side, the pink-haired girl putting her arm around him.

'Thank you' I mouthed and he only nodded in response, carefully getting to his feet with Popuri's assistance. We watched as they hurried back to safety, waiting until they disappeared behind the trees before we returned to our earlier position – Cliff on his hands and knees and me on his back. I double-checked the room quickly, making sure no one had come after hearing Kai open it, but the coast was clear. I grabbed the top of the window for support, and managed to get my foot up onto the windowsill. It hurt and made me wish I was more flexible, but I managed, and then I climbed up and through the window. Kai had put a chair on the other side, which he had clearly used to stand on to open and then get through the window, so I used that to climb down. I stood for a moment, silent and listening, before glancing towards the window. I could feel a presence in my mind; I knew Cliff was in his raven form. _Okay, come on_.

He flew through the window, and landed beside me, staying in his raven form as it allowed us to communicate silently. I closed the window, leaving it just slightly ajar, and moved the chair – it was best that the room did not look like it had been entered through the window. Then I took a chance to properly look around, and I had to blink several times to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating.

The room was filled with, to my disbelief, teddy bears. Teddy bears _everywhere_, ranging from tiny to life-sized. They were stacked on shelves, sitting on a desk, and just scattered on the floor everywhere. What was even more unusual was what was sitting in the corner – a giant, black cauldron. We used cauldrons to make potions but they were never _that _big.

_Who on earth lives here...? _I wondered, Cliff hearing my thoughts too, but I didn't get a chance to hear his response, because then we both heard it – the sound of footsteps, coming closer.

* * *

I do believe a fair few of you should have worked out who the main villain is from this chapter. I know at least one of you has already.

Hope you enjoyed!


	17. Inside

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night everyone! So, last night I was on Tumblr and it was being ridiculously slow, so in between loading pages I decided to write, expecting just to do maybe a paragraph or so. But then I couldn't stop, so I finished a chapter for you. Bear in mind that it was written whilst I was multi-tasking, after a long day, at about 11 o'clock at night so I apologise if it's not too good, but I don't think it's that bad so I figured I could post it. Enjoy!

**Review Replies**

FlamingIceWolfGirl: There is some action in this chapter. I do hope you approve.

Greil9: I'm glad you liked it. :)

Yako-chan278: Points to you for being the only person to remember that I had said her name would be Rhiannon in the first chapter. I do believe you deserve a prize. And it also made me smile a lot to hear that you and your friend "freaked" when you saw the update. It's exciting to imagine that people get excited over this. Thank you!

Invader Cakez: Indeed, indeed. Enjoy. :)

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harvest Moon, a cauldron, or a room filled with teddy bears.

* * *

**Chapter 17**

**Inside**

Cliff and I exchanged glances, and we didn't need a telepathic connection to know that we were thinking the exact same thing. _Crap_. There was a good second or two where we stood frozen in fear, common sense escaping us before we realised that we had to hide, and fast. In his raven form, Cliff dived into the pile of teddy bears, hiding behind the larger ones so he would not be seen. I was a bit too big for that. Some part of my body would certainly stick out. I was panicked; I wasn't thinking straight and so I did the first thing that came to mind. I raced to the cauldron. When I say it was huge, it was _huge_, but there was a small step ladder beside it. I hurried up the steps and literally _jumped_ into the cauldron. To get myself as low as possible, I curled up on my side on the bottom of the cauldron – and at the same time I made the discovery that it was still slightly wet, but this was something that I could worry about when I wasn't fearing for my own life. I heard the door open, and then I was inwardly panicking. What if this person hadn't come because they heard us? What if they had come for the cauldron?

_Oh my goddess, oh my goddess, oh my goddess, _I repeated in my mind. _I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to...Is that barking? _

The footsteps, which had come so close to the cauldron in which I lay, stopped. I held my breath, afraid of making even the slightest sound and I listened. Yes, I could hear barking. And I'd recognise that bark anywhere. That was Sammie. Sammie was barking, at the top of her lungs. And her barks were varying between coming closer and going further away – like she was running, too.

The footsteps started again. Not coming closer, but going away. The person was running away. They must have heard Sammie, I concluded immediately. And if this person was the same person who had almost killed her before...

"Claire, they'll be back, we have to move!"_  
_

Cliff's voice was soft, so as not to be heard but his tone so urgent that I moved quicker than I would have expected to. He was in his human form, having climbed the ladder so he could help me. He grabbed my hand and hauled me out, and then we exchanged glances and raced out the door, looking for a new place to hide. Neither of us knew the layout of the hut; we didn't know whereabouts our friends were, but if this person was outside the hut this was our best chance to hunt.

Cliff was still holding onto my hand, a fair bit tighter than usual, but I have to admit it was sort of comforting. There was one room to our left – upon quick examination, we realised it was a bedroom – and one to our right – a bathroom - but then there was an empty hall. We tried our best to walk swiftly but silently, and then we came to the end. There was what I assumed was the front door, and what must have been a living room – there was a couch and a desk and chair, and a bookshelf – and this room was connected to what was clearly a kitchen. This was it. The hut wasn't that big, and we had gotten to the end. Unless they were very well hidden (though it couldn't be too easy to hide four teenagers) they weren't in the hut. We walked through the living room, in case there was a door that we hadn't seen because of the bookcase, for example, but I couldn't see anything. I glanced at Cliff, and opened my mouth, but then the door handle creaked, and I froze. Cliff reacted quickly, though. In a matter of seconds he had pushed me against the wall behind the bookcase – the shelf hiding us from view as long as the person walked towards the hallway and not towards the kitchen – and he stood right in front of me, close as he dared so that no part of his body would peek out from behind the bookcase. As we heard the sound of the door opening, he edged himself closer to me, putting us in a position that would be almost awkward or embarrassing if we weren't so afraid. I was holding my breath, and so was he, eyes fixed on mine (filled with so much fear).

Footsteps. He pressed himself closer to me, hiding as much as possible, and I couldn't help but squeeze my eyes shut in fear because they sounded like they were coming closer. But then they weren't. Then they were moving further away, down the hall. Simultaneously, Cliff and I let out a sigh of relief, Cliff stepping away from me, and I slid down the wall, shaking. That was too close. But I wasn't shaking because I feared for my own life, or even Cliff's.

_Sammie? _

I immediately understood what Kai and Mary had meant when they mentioned the protective field. The moment I reached out my mind to her, I received an incredibly painful headache. But I needed to hear her voice. I needed to know that she was okay. There was silence in my mind and I was starting to shake more. What if something had happened to her? Cliff had crouched down beside me, eyes searching mine as he tried to understand what was going on without me telling him. I don't know if he worked out that I was trying to contact Sammie, and I wasn't having a panic attack or anything, but this thought was not something on my mind, because then, finally, Sammie answered.

_Claire! Oh, goddess, I couldn't feel your mind at all, I thought something had happened..._

_ Oh, thank goddess. Thank goddess. _I'm sure the relief was visible on my face, and Cliff seemed to relax a bit too. _What happened? I heard you barking._

_ You were thinking that you were going to die. I heard your mind. So I got her attention so she came after me instead. _

_ Are you okay? Is everyone else okay? _

_ We're fine. Are you?_

_ I hope so. Thank you, Sammie. _

_ Be careful._

The telepathic bond dropped, the headache fading quickly. Taking Cliff's hand, I got to my feet, and leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"Sammie got her away from us. They're safe."

He nodded in response, and I saw the look of relief come over his face. Then, he whispered back two words: "The others." I knew what he meant.

The only proof we had had that this hut held our friends was a spirit that only I had seen, leading us here. But we had seen every room in this tiny hut, and there was no sign of any of them. Maybe we were wrong. Cliff nodded towards the door, silently telling me that maybe we should get to the others and think up a new plan, and all I could do was nod in response. But I was so sure...After all, there was an abnormally large cauldron (and now that the fear was gone I realised how wet my clothes were, with who-knows-what potion that was) and the hut was so isolated from everything...But there was nothing else we could do. We began to walk silently towards the door. We stepped onto the rug, and then froze, as the floor beneath us creaked.

I only wondered, and feared, that we had been heard, but again, Cliff was thinking more logically. He grabbed my hand and pulled me back off the rug, and then knelt down and lifted it. His eyes lit up, and he rolled it back, revealing (making my eyes widen) a trapdoor. This was it. This had to be it. The two of us ran our hands along the wooden surface – there was no handle to grab onto. Thankfully, my fingers were small enough to _just _fit in one of the gaps between the wooden planks, and I pulled with all my might. Cliff helped too, once he was able to get his hand underneath, and we lifted the trapdoor open. There was nothing but darkness below, but it _had _to be it. I held the door open, and he grabbed onto the edge of the hole in the floor, letting himself hang off it, before letting go. The soft thump came only a couple seconds later, followed by a soft "Jump." I grabbed the trapdoor, so I could pull it shut behind me, and I fell into the darkness of the hole, landing by his side.

I waited for my eyes to focus, but they didn't – we were completely engulfed in darkness. Cliff grabbed my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze, and I returned it, before holding my free hand out in front of me. Together, we walked. We tried to keep quiet, but in the silence of the underground corridor our footsteps sounded deafening.

It was like a maze down there. We were constantly bumping into walls and making turns, and I was beginning to wonder if we were moving in circles, before we turned another corner, and I was beginning to see light. Not a lot of light, of course, but just a dull, flickering glow from around the next corner. We sped up, turning the corner, and we came to a door. It was locked, but thankfully I had the bobby pin that Kai had used to unlock the window. It took several minutes, but finally, the lock clicked, and the door opened.

And then there was a voice, soft and broken but filled with so much hope as she exclaimed "Claire!" and then Mary's arms were wrapped around me.


	18. Run

Oh, hello. Remember me? Honestly, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't; it's been over five months. I am sorry. I am so, so sorry. However, in my defence, Year 12 has been so much harder than I had expected. Even during our mid-semester break, we had a ridiculous amount of work and so I had no time to write. It's only now that I've managed to find time to breathe. I go back to school in a week's time, unfortunately, so I'm not making promises on how quickly I can update, but I have worked out that, hypothetically, I have enough time in my day to get over two hours of study done and have a designated writing hour, among piano practice and stretching and, you know, eating and sleeping and breathing and being human. So I'll try. I promise I'll try.

Rambly author's note. Sorry. It appears I become incredibly talkative (at least online) when I'm lonely.

Though, while I am being rambly and annoying, I would like to make an enormous shout out to absolutely everyone who has stuck with this so far despite all my long hiatuses. Yes, that means you. I love you.

**Review Replies  
**

MorWolfMor: Here's your update! Terribly sorry for the long hiatus. I see you've changed your username in the time I've been gone. Tell me, is it just my obsession talking, or does that have anything to do with Sherlock and "MorMor"?

Yako-chan278: You said that if I don't update soon, the suspense will tighten and you will die. Oh dear. Please tell me you haven't died. How ever will you then know how this ends?

0-MagicMelody-0: What was in the potion, indeed? You don't get to find out yet! Guess you'll just have to stick with me and my long hiatuses until you get to find out!

Invader Cakez: Yeyuh to you too.

snowflower90: I'm so glad you like it, I really am. Thank you!

starrynitegirl: Here, look, I updated!

Really, to all of you, thank you. You actually have no idea how much I love you and your reviews and I just want to give you all a boatload of virtual cookies (or cake if you're not into cookies).

**Disclaimer:** In my long hiatus, I have not gained ownership of _Harvest Moon_.

* * *

**Chapter 18**

**Run**

I don't think I'd ever been so glad to see anyone in my entire life. I was frozen for half a second before my brain caught up and I was able to wrap my arms around the other girl, hugging her so tightly that I worried for a moment that she wasn't able to breathe. "Oh, thank goddess," I heard her whisper, burying her head in my shoulder. "Thank goddess, thank goddess, thank goddess."

"Are you okay?" I asked, pulling back from the embrace so that I could meet her eyes. Now that I got a good look at her, I realised exactly how pale she was. There were dark bags underneath her eyes, as if she hadn't slept in weeks, but yet it had only been a matter of days since she had disappeared. Two days, I remembered – one night we had spent making a potion, and the other we had spent sleeping on the forest floor. Mary and the others had only been missing for two days, and yet she looked as though she hadn't slept in weeks. For that matter, she looked like she hadn't eaten in weeks either. She looked completely malnourished – pale and thin, like she'd break if pushed too hard.

She shook her head in response to my question, but instead of explaining what was wrong with her, she said, "It's not me you have to worry about right now."

I released her and looked around, taking in the room. It was a prison cell. That was the only way I could describe it. It looked as though I could circle the entire perimeter in less than thirty steps and it was completely empty, the only source of light coming from a small, barred window at the top, out of reach and far too small for even a child to slide through, even if they had somehow managed to remove the bars. The place was filthy and stank of urine and faeces, and there was some sort of liquid leaking from the roof of one corner, the irregular _drip, drip, drip _echoing in the silence. Ann was standing by the back wall, leaning against it as if she didn't have the energy to support herself, and there was a chicken pacing back and forth in front of her (_Rick_, I thought to myself, remembering that the boy was a shape-shifter). And then I saw Jill.

Like Mary (and Ann, for that matter), Jill looked malnourished and sick. She was lying sprawled out on the ground, eyes shut and body unmoving. For one short, absolutely horrifying moment, I thought that she was dead, until I saw the slight rise and fall of her chest – her breathing was shallow, but she was still breathing. I pushed past Mary and ran to her side, crouching down beside her. "Jill? Jill, can you hear me? Wake up. Come on, please wake up." I checked her pulse, I shook her gently and I whispered directly into her ear, but she didn't respond. I looked over my shoulder. "What have they done to her?"

Mary fidgeted on the spot for a moment. "That's the thing. I can't remember. There are holes. I can't remember anything outside of being locked in this cell. One moment she was fine – well, she was weak but she was awake – and then there's a hole, and then the next thing I knew, she was unconscious. This was before the sun had risen and unless my memory is being blocked, she hasn't woken since."

"We can't use our powers." Ann tried to straighten up, but she slumped back against the wall, sliding down to the ground. "I don't know what they've done to us but I can't feel mine anymore. It's like I don't have them anymore."

"And mine are barely there," murmured Mary.

I looked back down at my cousin's unconscious form, reaching over and brushing her hair out of her face. "We're going to get you out of here, I promise. We are..."

_Claire_.

I froze, not only at the voice but at the sudden pain that entered my mind. It was not Sammie's voice that I heard, nor Cliff's voice or even that eerie monotone of the weird spirit animals that had brought us here. But I recognised that voice, though it took me a minute to put a name to a face. _Rick. _

I looked towards the chicken, which was pecking at the ground near my feet as though he were trying to get my attention. He looked up at me, and I could feel this buzzing sensation in my mind, like he was trying to talk to me. But I couldn't make more than a few words out.

_She... hypno... forget that... giving us a... drain... can't change... rem... _It was like trying to listen to a radio station that was almost out of range; the words were crackly and there were varying lengths of pauses in between words and syllables. I held up a hand and I felt, more than heard, him stop talking. "Rick," I whispered, not wanting to use my mental powers – even with him being right there, my head was beginning to throb with the energy it required. "I'm sorry. I can't understand what you're trying to say." The chicken pecked at my foot and stared up at me, and I had a weird feeling that he physically wasn't able to change back.

I looked back down at Jill, and then up at Mary and Ann. "We're going to get you guys out of here. I'll get Sam-"

"Claire!"

The urgency of Cliff's voice, even in a hardly audible tone, shut me up immediately. My head snapped towards him, meeting his eyes, but I didn't need to ask him what it was, because now that I was silent I heard it. Echoing through the hallway was the unmistakable sound of footsteps – swift and purposeful, faint but rapidly becoming closer. Cliff's hand was on my arm, pulling me to my feet, and I knew immediately that we had the same thoughts – the long, maze-like hallway was dark and there was nowhere to hide in here, so we needed to get out as quickly as possible, before the footsteps got too close.

"We'll be back for you," I whispered before I let Cliff pull me out of the door, pulling it shut behind me.

It felt almost counter-productive, heading away from the light as we were, but we needed to be completely engulfed in darkness. Cliff clung onto my hand (or perhaps it was I who was clinging onto his) and we rounded every corner that we could, still walking (albeit slower in order to be quieter) even when we couldn't see anything. We kept to the walls, flattening ourselves against it in hopes that whoever was coming would walk straight past us. The footsteps were coming closer now, so much closer, almost here, and then I saw the faint glow of light about to round the corner and I froze, feeling Cliff stiffen beside me at the same time. Why hadn't we thought of that? Why hadn't we assumed that this person would be smart enough to bring a torch or any other source of light? _Crap, crap, crap, crap..._

Cliff squeezed my hand to grab my attention, hastily leaning down and whispering directly into my ear, "Run."

Then suddenly his hand was no longer in mind, and I reached out in panic before the person turned the corner, the light from a fire torch illuminating her face for a second – purple eyes and messy dirty blonde hair. In the sudden orange light, I saw where Cliff had gone. I heard a screech and saw a brown raven dive for the woman, knocking the torch out of her hand and engulfing the tunnel in darkness once more.

I ran. I ran in the opposite direction to where the woman had come from, hearing the sound of a bird's screech and a woman's cries fading behind me. I didn't bother to keep silent – I couldn't be both silent and fast, and there was no point choosing the former when my presence was already known. My feet slapped against the concrete, and several times I ran into walls, wincing in pain and then pushing myself off, getting my bearings again and continuing to run. I kept looking up, praying to see that tiny slit of light that would come through the trapdoor, but above me there was nothing but darkness that seemed to drag on forever. I could no longer hear the sound of Cliff or the woman – the only thing I could hear were my footsteps, my ragged breathing, and the sound of blood rushing in my ears.

I hated myself for running. I hated myself for leaving Cliff behind – I didn't even know if he were okay or even alive. But I was weak. I couldn't contact Sammie until my life wasn't in immediate danger, and until I could contact Sammie and get her, Kai and Popuri to come and help us, I could do nothing but run. My powers were useless on both the offensive and the defensive, and I needed their help. I needed to get out. I needed to get to them and to get help so that I could save Cliff and Mary and Ann and Jill and Rick.

I winced as I slammed into another wall, pushed myself off of it and continued to run. No light and no noise other than the sounds of my own body. I didn't know where I was and I felt so awfully, terribly alone, but I needed to get help and I needed to get out and I needed to rescue the others and, goddess, I needed them to be okay. _Run_, I told myself. _Run, run, run! _

The last thing I remember was the feel of something soft on my ankle, snaking around it, pulling it out from underneath me. For a split second there was an excruciating pain in my head, and then I heard, saw and felt nothing at all.

* * *

Hope it was okay; I'd hate to think I'd given you a long wait for something positively awful. Anyway, I just wanted to pop in here because I'm setting up a little bit of a challenge for any of my artistically talented readers. I understand and don't expect you to do anything if you can't or don't want to, but I see that this site now allows cover images for stories. I can't draw if my life depends on it, but if any of you can and have some free time on your hands, I would simply adore you if you'd draw me up a cover for this. Again, you don't have to, but, you know, if you want.

Until next time!


	19. Chained

Well, I've kept to my "write for one hour every day" rule so far, though I can't say it'll stay the same when school goes back. Nonetheless, I shall try my best, and for now I have a few more days left of the holidays, during which I have no excuse if I don't update. So I've written you another chapter! I'll warn you now that it's filler-y, but it's important. The climax is approaching!

I really need to work on writing chapters longer than 2,000...

**Review Replies**

MorWolfMor: Hah, I'm glad I noticed it, then. I can't say I'm a huge MorMor fan (merely because I've not read the books and so I haven't the faintest clue what Moran should be like), but I'm incredibly obsessed with the show at the moment (_I need season threeeeee_) and I'm going to try my hand at some fanfiction once I'm done with my two W. . But I'm rambling over things unrelated. Thank you for reviewing!

starrynitegirl: I updated! So I don't have murder on my hands! Yay!

snowflower90: I'm really glad you found it worth the wait. I appreciate it. :)

Invader Cakez: I'm going to hope your review means positive things. Well, sort of. :)

**Disclaimer**: I do not own _Harvest Moon_.

* * *

**Chapter 19**

**Chained**

Pain. My head was both throbbing and stinging at the same time, and there was a warm wetness on my forehead. I went to reach up my hand to wipe it but I found that I couldn't, wincing as my wrist pulled against something cold and sharp. I hesitantly moved the other one, and was greeted by the same problem. I tried to say something, but my throat was dry and only a cracked sort of sound came out. My head hurt. I tried to call out mentally, and I felt the pain intensify as I did, but I heard nothing. My mind had never been blank before – Sammie was usually with me, talking away mentally, and it was very rare that I'd find somewhere where I could not hear the thoughts of birds or pets or any other sort of wildlife hanging about. But now, I could hear nothing; there wasn't even the slightest sound of any animal existing in my mind. It was blank.

Slowly, groggily, I managed to force my eyes open, blinking several times to get them to focus. It was dark, but not as dark as the maze of tunnels had been. There had to be light coming in from somewhere, though I wasn't sure where, which allowed there to be a difference in darkness between when I had my eyes open and when I had my eyes closed. However, it was still incredibly difficult to see.

I shifted slightly, and looked down at my hands, having to spend a good few seconds focussing before I could see the shiny silver handcuffs that were locked around my wrists. Each hand, I noticed, had a different pair of handcuffs on it, and both pairs were connected to the wall behind me. I pulled against them feebly, wincing again as the metal grazed my skin. Pulling against them would get me nowhere; they were far too solid, far too tight.

I raised my head and looked around in an attempt to study my surroundings but, in the darkness, I couldn't tell if the room was empty or if I was merely unable to see. I held my breath and listened closely for any other sound, but the only thing I could hear was the dreadful, high-pitched ringing that was my mind filling in the silence. The moment I became aware of this sound it intensified, and I let out a soft groan and pulled against the cuffs again merely to get the noise to fade away.

How long had I been out for? I wasn't sure. It couldn't have been longer than a couple of hours, but perhaps unconsciousness severely messes up one's sense of time. It could have been anywhere between maybe five minutes and a day, for all I knew. That wasn't a comforting thought. The fact that I didn't seem to know anything wasn't a comforting thought, really. What did I know? I knew that I was alone, unless there was someone in here that was capable of not making a single sound. Presumably, I was still somewhere in the underground maze beneath the hut – it had the same, musky sort of smell, and I didn't think I had been out long enough for me to be moved elsewhere. I could have been mistaken, though. I was either incredibly far away from any wildlife, including Sammie (and therefore my friends), or something else was blocking my powers. Oh, and I was in a tonne of pain. But that was it. That was all I knew.

Somewhere out there - and I didn't know how far away - my friends were in danger. Jill was laying unconscious, Rick unable to turn back into a human and Mary and Ann both weak, Cliff possibly hurt or worse, and I wasn't even sure about Popuri, Kai and Sammie. And here I was, chained to a wall. I needed to get out. I was no good to them there.

I focussed again on the cuff on my left wrist, twisting my body awkwardly in order to get my head as close to the cuff as possible, so that I could see it properly. I narrowed my eyes and I stared at it, but the darkness prevented me from seeing the location of the keyhole. Even if I could, I knew it would be no good to me. Even with access to the bobby pin that we'd been using to pick locks, I didn't have the mobility of my other hand to allow myself to insert it into the keyhole, wherever that may have been. The only way I would get myself out of these things would be brute force. I took a deep breath, and then pulled against the cuff with all my might. It grazed against the skin and I kept pulling, trying to push past the pain and biting down on my lower lip to keep myself from crying out. _Pull, pull, pull, crap, no. _It hurt. The metal felt as though it was cutting into my skin, and I immediately stopped pulling, hand falling limp by my side. I closed my eyes and forced back the involuntary tears that had sprung into existence, exhaling heavily through my nose. Trying to break the cuffs that way would only injure my wrists and it looked as though it had absolutely no effect on the cuffs themselves.

Time to try a different technique. I rolled my wrist around slightly – at least, as much as the handcuffs would allow – and then I attempted to twist my hand and make it as small as possible so that I could slide it out. This, of course, was no good. Despite the small size of my wrists, the cuffs still snagged on my hand and I couldn't pull them out. The only way this technique would work would be if I either broke my wrist or perhaps dislocated my thumb. I was seriously considering the latter – it was my thumb or my friends' lives – when I heard the sound of a door being thrown open.

"So you're Claire." The voice came from the darkness, and I found myself looking in the direction from which it came, yet I couldn't see anything. The voice sounded familiar and I recognised why a second later, hearing the echo of a memory in the back of my mind, an identical voice saying 'Oh. Just you, mutt.'

The sound of a match being struck seemed to echo in the silence, and I saw the tiny flame move through the air until suddenly it caught on what I realised a second later to be a fire torch, a larger flame flickering to life and casting a red-orange glow around the (empty, I realised) room. The light illuminated the face of the girl - the same girl as before with the purple eyes and the dirty blonde hair. She looked to be only a little older than I was – her fair, unblemished skin had a youthful, healthy glow. The corners of her lips were pulled upwards into a tight smirk, and she was looking down her nose at me as if I were something disgusting and pitiful.

"I've been wondering when you'd show up," she said, taking slow, deliberate steps towards me, reaching out her torch as if to get a better look at me. I couldn't help but imagine how absolutely pathetic I must have looked, injured and weak and chained to a wall, slowly losing all hope. "That little one has been dreaming about you, hasn't she? Contacting you in her dreams, calling you for help. She seemed to have such faith in you." She crouched down to my level, the smirk growing on her face. "I have to admit, I'm disappointed. I expected more from you, but you ended out being quite a bore. You were just as easy to capture as the rest of them. I thought I might have a little bit of difficulty given I'd need to make up a new potion and you had arrived before I was expecting you, but you've gone and fixed that little problem yourself." She reached up, and I tried to flinch back, but my head hit the wall and I couldn't get any further away. She ran her hand through my hair, and when she pulled her fingers back, they were coated with a green liquid. "Word of advice: make sure your cauldron's empty before you go hide in it."

I tried my best to glare at her, but I knew I must have only looked pathetic, because it just made her smirk grow into a grin. I tried to speak, found my voice cracked, cleared my throat and then spoke, voice low as if that made me any more intimidating. Pfft. "What does it do?"

She let out a soft laugh. "Oh, you know, it just slowly drains your powers until they cease to exist. Speaking of which, what are your powers?"

I glared at her and pursed my lips shut. She seemed unfazed. She locked her eyes on mine, and I saw hers glow. "_Tell me what your powers are_."

I felt nothing, no compulsion to tell her, but I understood immediately what was happening. I had seen it when Karen had used her own abilities – she was trying to hypnotise me. But it wasn't working, and I almost smiled, because the potion was still keeping my mind safe. But I didn't want her to know that. What did I have to lose if she knew what I could do? I kept my expression blank. "Animal communication."

Her eyes lit up – not in the glowing hypnosis way, but merely with what looked like excitement. "Animal communication? Oh, that'll be exciting! I wonder if it'll link with my hypnosis and allow me to control them." She let out a giggle, seeming to be talking more to herself. "Oh, this'll be fun. This'll be good fun!" She looked back to me, smirked and stood up. "Thanks for your help, dear! I'll come back and give you a second dose of that potion shortly. Oh, and _forget that this conversation happened_."

I knew by the change in tone that she had activated her hypnosis abilities again, but the conversation remained in my mind. This is what she had done to the others to create the holes in their memories. Maybe she had told them her plan, told them what the potion did and then told them to forget it all. That was the thing with 'evil geniuses'. They always needed an audience. And this woman had found a way to get one without revealing her plan.

_But she hadn't expected us to be prepared for it._


	20. Flames

All right, endless hiatuses over, and I mean for good now. Any of you who also followed my Teen Titans fic might have noticed that, after spending most of my time updating both it and this fic within a day or two of each other, I ended up dedicating all my time to my other fic, and I finally finished it. I'm now doing the same with this one (because really, this has gone on far too long, and the fact that I looked back through it and saw exactly how much my writing had changed since beginning it most certainly proved that). So, this is the last time I will apologise for making you wait so long between chapters. It should only have two or three left now, and I will try to get them done for you as soon as possible. For anyone and everyone who has followed me despite these, I honestly can't thank you enough.

* * *

**Chapter 20**

**Flames**

I didn't know how long I spent in that prison cell of a room after that. Once the messy-haired girl had left, taking the torch with her, I was engulfed in darkness. I might have fallen asleep, perhaps drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness. It was impossible to tell the difference between being awake and being asleep – all of it was just darkness, and occasional reminders of the pain I was slowly becoming accustomed to, in my head and against my wrists. My entire world consisted of nothing but darkness and pain, and complete silence. My mind felt empty – a sensation I'll admit I'd longed for before, when finding it hard to concentrate on anything other than animals who think too loud, and yet now that I had it I found it to be maddening. I wanted noise. I wanted to hear the birds enjoying each other's company as they gathered together on a tree, I wanted to hear stray cats wonder what garbage bin would have the best scraps of food and, more than anything, I wanted to hear Sammie's voice, so I'd know that she, and everyone else, was okay.

I didn't know if I stayed awake the entire time, if I drifted in and out of unconsciousness, or if I was constantly asleep. For that reason, I didn't know if I was awake or dreaming when I saw the spirit.

I didn't see it enter the room, and I hardly noticed it appear. I just knew that one moment, there was nothing but darkness, and the next, a glowing white dog floated in the air in front of me. It looked like the same dog as the one who had guided us to the hut, but I couldn't be certain that it was. After all, I was tired, disoriented and potentially dreaming, and the fact that I could see this spirit-creature at all was something in itself.

It didn't move, nor speak, but merely hovered there in front of me – the only source of light in the darkness. The dull glow that it produced wasn't enough to see more than a few centimetres around it, but it was still something. For a moment, it seemed like the two of us did nothing but stare, before I decided to try to make contact. Maybe I could speak to it, and I could find out who it was. Maybe, just maybe, it could help me.

_Who are you? _

It was only three words, sent out to a creature less than a metre away from me, yet the pain in my head was excruciating. I couldn't stop myself from wincing, squeezing my eyes shut tightly and breaking the mental connection hastily. It was worse than last time, I realised, and I wasn't sure I could fight through pain that severe.

When I opened my eyes, I saw that the spirit was staring at me, head tilted slightly to the left in the same way that Sammie would do when she was confused. I swallowed thickly (which was immensely difficult, given the dryness of my throat), and then forced myself to try again.

_Nod if you can hear me_.

I winced at the pain and broke the mental connection quickly, forcing myself to keep my eyes open so that I could see the reaction of the spirit. It looked uncertain, but it nodded his head – one slow movement, up and down.

I went to rub my head, but I received a painful reminder of the silver cuffs that attached my wrists to the wall. I stared at the spirit for several moments before I forced myself to make mental connection one last time, just to say two words.

_Find Cliff._

That was all I could handle. Immediately after that, the spirit either vanished into thin air, leaving me in darkness, or I passed out.

OoO

The next thing I was aware of was the creaking sound of the door open. The light of the torch was blinding in contrast to the darkness I'd become so accustomed to in the past few hours (if it was, in fact, hours – I didn't know how long I'd been chained there for). I blinked to get my eyes to focus, noting how crusty and dry they felt. The woman with the dirty blonde hair was back, flaming torch in one hand and a vile of green liquid in the other. It took me a moment to realise what it was, and when I did I instinctively tried to squirm backwards, only to hit my back against the wall. It had to be the same potion that had been in the cauldron I hid in earlier – the one designed to drain me of my abilities. I squirmed as if I could get away, but the chains kept me firmly in place. The woman smirked and placed the flaming torch on a bracket against a wall, moving over to me.

"Now, now," she cooed in a mock-comforting voice, lowering herself to her knees in front of me. "This will only hurt a lot."

She grabbed hold of my upper-arm, pushing the sleeve of my t-shirt up past my shoulder and holding the needle above my skin. I tried to get away, but her grip was too tight and I couldn't get free. I felt the point of the needle touch my skin – not piercing it yet, but just being positioned, finding the right spot. I bit down on my lip, holding my breath, waiting for the pain of the injection…

And then the door flew open.

The woman spun around (to my relief, pulling the needle away from my skin), and my eyes focussed on the figure stepping through the door, stomach leaping with joy and recognition.

"Popuri!"

The pink-haired girl let out something like a war cry, hurtling herself towards the woman as fast as she could. The woman dropped the needle so that she could thrust both hands in front of her, and they glowed with energy before she moved them so her palms faced the flaming torch on the wall. The fire flickered and shifted, and then suddenly it was no longer attached to the torch, but instead floating in the air. She thrust her hands towards Popuri, and the fire followed, flying towards the pink-haired girl. It was too fast for my friend to stop it. She cried out in pain as it forced her backwards, thrashing about on the floor and beating at her flaming clothing.

My eyes dropped to the ground, to the needle that the woman had dropped. It was out of reach for my chained hands, but my legs weren't chained as well. I shifted about as quickly as I could manage while the woman was still distracted by Popuri – her hands were still thrust out in front of her body, and I was certain that that was why the flames, no matter how much Popuri rolled around, weren't going out – and I managed to kick the vile close enough for me to grab hold of it and then, with some considerable difficulty and uncomfortable twisting of my body, jab it into her leg.

She howled out in pain and fell to the ground, scrambling to pull the needle out of her leg. I looked over at Popuri, but the fire hadn't gone out. Instead, the entire corner of that room had been consumed by it, and I couldn't see Popuri at all. I looked back at the woman, who had managed to pull the needle from her leg, discarding the now-empty vile on the ground. She glanced at the slowly growing fire, and then turned to me and struck me hard across the face.

"You can sit here and burn," she hissed. "I don't need you."

Her purple cloak swished around her body as she stood and spun around, and the door slammed shut behind her. The fire in the corner was spreading, and the room was getting warmer by the minute. It wouldn't take more than a few minutes for it to consume everything.

"Popuri!" I screamed, trying to look for any sign of movement, even a shadow in the flames. I didn't want to believe that anything could have happened to her, didn't want to accept that no one could survive being burnt like that. I inhaled to yell again, but took in more smoke than air and ended up coughing before pursing my lips shut tightly, trying to hold my breath. I struggled against the chains, desperate and afraid and shaking all over, but I was no closer to freeing myself than I had been when I first woke up here. The fire had taken up a good half of the room now, and, given its size, it wouldn't take long for it to consume me like it had done to Popuri.

My attempt to hold my breath failed and I gasped for air, only ending up coughing and spluttering once more as I took in more smoke than I did oxygen. My forehead was coated in sweat, the heat rising quickly in the burning cell. The silver cuffs were now not only grazing but burning my wrists, slowly becoming uncomfortably hot against my skin. I thrashed and squirmed and tried to get free, though I was losing hope when the door flung open and in rushed…

_Popuri? _

Even though my mind felt hazy with fear and exhaustion, and even though darkness licked at the corners of my vision, there was no denying that the girl who skidded on her knees to my side was Popuri. I'd have wondered if it were nothing more than a hallucination, but her hand was on my wrist, jamming a bobby pin into the keyhole and jiggling about, and that was most definitely not a hallucination.

I tried to ask how she was here when I had just seen her burn, but I couldn't even spit out the "How" before I was overcome by the smoke, coughing and gasping for air that my lungs couldn't find. Popuri put a hand on my leg for a second before she went back to working on the handcuffs. However, she managed to murmur one word that made everything make sense.

"Clone."

The lock on the handcuffs clicked, the scalding hot metal sliding over my hands as they fell off, and then Popuri was pulling me to my feet, forcing me to stand. My legs almost gave way beneath me, but she was quick to wrap an arm around my waist to keep me up. I glanced at the flames, which were mere centimetres away from reaching us now, and then we were both stumbling forward, the pink-haired girl forcing me to move faster than my state wanted to allow.

Getting out of the door was a relief – the hall outside wasn't like a sauna, but the heat from behind us didn't help, and, given the hut was made of straw, once the fire spread to the upper level of the hut the whole thing would be in flames in seconds. I tried to speak, but I only ended up coughing again, and Popuri shifted so she was grabbing onto my wrist, tugging. "We have to get out!"

I tried to protest, thinking of Cliff, and of Mary, Ann, Jill and Rick, but I couldn't get out even a word without coughing. It didn't matter, though, because Popuri understood what I was going to say and was quick to say, "Kai went to find them; we're going to die, come on!" She pulled at my wrist again, and I didn't bother to resist. She was right. We needed to run.

The further away from the fire we moved, the more the darkness consumed us, and I didn't know if we were going in the right direction at all. We ran into walls as I had done before, only trying to run away from the fire. It was hard for me to breathe, and I would have stopped, probably collapsed had Popuri not been clutching me, forcing me to keep moving. We both kept as low as possible in an attempt to avoid the smoke, but there was only so much you can do when you're trying to run. Our footsteps pounded loudly against the ground, echoing against the walls and I prayed Popuri knew where she was going. Judging by the continuous slamming into walls and changes of directions, I couldn't help but doubt it.

I winced as we ran into another wall, Popuri turning to run in the other direction before finding that that direction was cut off too. She spun around to try the other way, and my stomach twisted in horror as I came to the same realisation that I'm sure she did – we'd reached a dead end.

We turned to run the other way, but stopped when we saw the light coming from around the corner. The fire was catching up, and we couldn't turn back. Popuri pulled on my wrist to get me to the ground, away from the smoke (it didn't matter, because I was still coughing and spluttering anyway), but it wouldn't take long for the fire to consume us. Popuri was shaking beside me, and I knew she was thinking the same thing. _We're going to die._

"Claire…" Her voice sounded cracked and weak, like she was fighting back tears. "I'm so, so sorry, I'm so…"

"Claire! Popuri!"

The voice – _Kai's _voice – came from above, and my head snapped up quickly. There was nothing but darkness right above, but a metre or so forward there was the faintest of light peering through the cracks of what I realised was the trap door.

Popuri reacted before me, pulling me to my feet and yanking me forward once more. Above us, Kai pulled open the trap door, and Popuri gave me a boost. Kai grabbed my hands and pulled me out, and then reached down to help Popuri. She grabbed hold of one of my hands, Kai grabbing the other, and then we were racing towards the door, through the door, across the clearing, to the edge of a forest, where a group larger than just Cliff and Sammie stood.

We got to the forest, and the moment my friends released my hands, I collapsed to my knees, coughing and spluttering as the straw hut burned behind me.


	21. The Fight

****This. Chapter. Was. So. Hard. To. Write. Oh. My. God.

Ahem.

I should probably let you know that I've made some minor changes to the first few chapters, because I realised I'd written one thing but in my mind I'd had something else. I've made them all a little bit older and they'd known each other a little longer before the major plot of the story started.

Okay. Okay? Okay.

**Disclaimer: **I do not and never have owned _Harvest Moon_. Even though I forgot the disclaimer last time.

* * *

**Chapter 21**

**The Fight **

In a second, Mary's arms were wrapped around me, and I could feel the way her body trembled against mine even as I continued to cough and gasp. It had never felt so good to have fresh air fill my lungs, even though, with the burning straw hut behind us, the air wasn't as fresh as it could have been. Mary was muttering something over and over, and it took me a long moment before I could focus enough to hear the words "Thank goodness, thank goodness, thank goodness," repeated over and over.

With more effort than should have been required, I managed to push myself back onto my knees, managing to meet Mary's eyes. She released me from the embrace, but she kept her hands firmly on the sides of my arms, and I realised she was partially holding me up, making sure I didn't collapse. I offered her a weak smile, and then looked up past her shoulder. Jill was still unconscious, lying on the ground in the shade. Ann had positioned herself kneeling beside her so that Jill's head could rest on her thighs as opposed to the hard, forest ground, and Rick, still in the form of a chicken, was sitting beside her. Cliff was there, standing beside Mary, and Popuri and Kai had been standing behind me, but stepped forward to join the group, stepping into my line of sight. Last but not least, there was Sammie, sitting patiently off to the side, watching me. They were all there. They were all safe. We were all safe.

Mary released me slowly, and then stood up and offered a hand to help me get to my feet. "I'm so glad you're all right," she murmured, and I nodded my head, intending to return the comment before I caught sight of her wrist, glancing down at our hands.

"You're hurt," I gasped, eyes focussing on what I realised quickly were burns, spreading from her wrist and disappearing beneath her dirtied shirt sleeve. I reached out to push her sleeve up without thinking, wanting to see how severe they were and how far up her arm they went, but she was quick to pull her hand back and shake her head.

"I'll be fine. Right now, we need to…"

"Claire!"

It was Cliff who shouted out my name, flying at me suddenly from the side and knocking me (and, at the same time, Mary) out of the way of a flaming ball that flew through the air like a comet towards us. Cliff only just managed to knock us out of the way – the three of us hit the ground, and the fire flew over our heads like a comet, only stopping when it hit a tree, which quickly caught alight. My head snapped in the direction from where the fire had come, but, of course, I knew who would be standing there before I saw her. She was standing in front of her burning hut, both her hands surrounded by flames that she was either invincible to, or that were not touching her body (or perhaps both). Her mouth was set in a hard line, eyes flashing dangerously.

"Look what you've done," she said, her voice not unlike a growl – low with anger, and not lacking in any bite. "Burnt my home, destroyed everything I own, destroyed months' worth of work, and you just stroll straight out of the flames, unharmed."

Her head snapped in the direction of Ann, who had gathered Jill's unconscious form in her arms and was running into the forest, away from the burning tree, and she let out a sound of contempt, raising one of her flaming hands in their direction and throwing another fireball in their direction. It missed them, narrowly (Ann let out a cry as it flew past her ear), and another tree caught alight, blocking their path. The fire wasn't spreading like an ordinary fire would have done – randomly, quickly engulfing anything and everything within reach – but instead its movements were precise, controlled, spreading outwards so that, instead of coming towards us, it was encircling us, trapping us in the clearing.

The girl let out a cold, cruel laugh. "You're not going anywhere."

From behind me, I heard a yell, and then Popuri – or, to be more correct, eight Popuris – were sprinting across the ground, all targeting the messy haired girl. The girl's expression did not falter, but instead, she smirked and then her eyes glowed. "_Stay where you are." _

They didn't stop, and it seemed to take her until the last moment before she understood – her hypnosis had no effect on us. You could see the moment that the realisation hit her – the confident expression and the smirk that seemed almost plastered on her face fell and she looked almost uncertain, almost afraid, just for half a second. The flames on her hands vanished, and she made a slashing gesture. From the ground rose one long, thin vine, which, in a second, managed to weave itself through and around all eight of the Popuri clones' legs, and then suddenly it was raised above our heads, hanging the Popuri clones upside down from their ankles. They struggled and kicked, and that was when I understood.

I'd seen vines like that before – stronger and healthier than any other plant – when my cousin made them. This girl wasn't just draining their powers, she was stealing them.

All of the Popuri clones disappeared, but that was when we saw that there had only been seven of them – the eighth was the real Popuri, dangling there from the vine. The girl walked over to her, laughing bitterly.

"How cute, the way you throw yourself in with your clones. Wouldn't it be so much easier to just stand a safe distance away and control them like puppets?" She smirked. "Guess you're not that clever." She raised her hand, sparking with purple energy, and she aimed it towards Popuri, before suddenly Sammie was at her feet, digging her teeth into the girl's ankle.

She let out a pained cry and her arm fell, purple energy sparking like lightning away from her hands and shooting a spot on the ground, burning a small patch of grass and leaving it smoking. She aimed again, this time at Sammie, and fired three purple bolts, but the dog managed to escape each one of them.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, and when I looked over, I saw Cliff, in his bird form, flying towards the vine that held Popuri hanging above the ground. He cut it with his beak, and Popuri hit the ground with an awful thump, head first. Cliff turned back into his human form to help pull the vines from her ankles and help her to her feet, all but dragging her back to where we all stood. Sammie too ran to my side. The messy haired girl was watching us, her stare cold, calculating. Her gaze flickered over to Ann and Jill, and then to Mary, and then she smirked.

"Well, I suppose it would be fair of us to even out the playing field," she said, lips pulling upwards at the corners, and then her eyes glowed. "_Kill them_."

There was a thump nearby, and I spun around, eyes widening. Ann's eyes were glowing a similar shade of purple, and she had dropped Jill – the girl had fallen in a crumpled, unconscious heap to the ground. I went to run to her, to see that she was still alive (the idea of the alternative left a sick, twisting sensation in the pit of my stomach), but then something – no, someone – lunged at me from the side and knocked me to the ground.

We rolled and tumbled, limbs flailing until one of us managed to stop us from moving. I was lying flat on the ground, small but surprisingly strong hands pinning my arms down. I opened my eyes, and above me was Mary, eyes glowing purple. She pressed down harder on my arms, positioned herself so that she was also pinning me down with her legs, pressing against the sides of my body, and then she went for my throat.

I'd always imagined fighting another person to be hard, but this must have been so much worse, because I was fighting a friend – she was trying to kill me, while I was trying to stop her without injuring her severely. We switched positions a lot, rolling and tumbling along the grass, me trying to pin her down so she couldn't hurt anyone while she thrashed and clawed at my body, always trying to get to my throat. I didn't know what was happening to everyone else – I could hear shouts and screams but I couldn't see, too distracted by Mary as she continued to attack me. She flipped our positions once again, my back hitting the floor with enough force to knock the wind out of me and almost certainly to bruise.

Before I had time to react, her forearm was pressing against my throat, and I was struggling to breathe. I flailed and thrashed, kicking my legs and clawing at her arm in an attempt to get myself free, but nothing seemed to faze her and she only pressed down harder, firmer. Blackness licked at the corners of my vision, and my attempts at freeing myself grew weaker and weaker, head spinning already with the lack of oxygen.

My arms fell limp, and I think I would have passed out had Kai not suddenly come flying out of nowhere, tackling Mary and throwing her off of me. I gasped and coughed, throat aching with each breath, but at least my lungs were taking in oxygen again. Kai was stronger than I was, and, of course, stronger than Mary was, and he seemed to have much less difficulty in pinning her down, even as she struggled and tried to go for him instead. He pushed her down and then rushed back over to me, Mary quick to get to her feet and rush after him. Someone grabbed my shoulder – I didn't have time to see who – and Kai grabbed my arm, and then the moment Mary made contact with him, he closed his eyes and I realise he was going to teleport.

What happened next happened within a second, too fast for my brain to catch up. It must have happened just before we were teleporting, but it all happened in the same second, it was impossible to tell. Someone grabbed hold of my ankle and pulled, and I felt my arm fall out of Kai's grip. My back hit the ground, hard, and it took me only a second to realise I wasn't with the rest of the group, but I was in the forest near the school (the outskirts of it, definitely, no more than one hundred metres from the school, but still away from everyone else). The next second, an all too familiar messy haired girl was on me.

Fighting her was very similar to fighting Mary – it was as if the two had used the same technique, Mary's possessed mind using the abilities that this girl possessed in her attacks. However, there were two very important differences. One was that the girl attacking me was stronger than Mary was, making it more difficult for me. The other was that I wasn't trying not to hurt her.

I pushed and shoved, pulling at her hair and kicking my legs every time she was able to pin me down, trying to free myself from her grasp. The ground here was rougher than the grass in the clearing, and as we tumbled I felt my body scrape along rocks and twigs, and I was sure it was doing the same to her every time I pushed her down. She braced her arms against mine to stop us from rolling, pinning me down, and she raised one hand, a fire sparking in the air, surrounding it.

I know fear must have shown on my face, because she let out a cold, manic laugh that chilled straight down to my bones. She raised her flaming hand, as if to strike me, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

Her hand did make contact with my face, but not in the way I expected. She punched hard enough to bruise, certainly, but the flames had gone out before they'd had time to reach me. My body was covered in goose bumps – suddenly, it had gone so cold. Her attacks had stopped, and I opened my eyes, seeing what I knew she was seeing too.

There were hundreds of them – spirits, surrounding us, floating in the air and staring at us with their lifeless eyes. It reminded me of that night, walking through the forest (that felt like a lifetime ago), yet this time I wasn't afraid.

She was. Even in the shadows that the trees cast upon us it was clear that the colour had drained from her face, and with the way she was pinning me down (not as strongly as before) I could feel her tremble against me.

The spirits spoke, in the same, eerie monotone that sounded like hundreds of different voices at once. "_You killed us_. _You killed us. You killed us._"

"Stop it!" she shouted. "You're dead! Leave me alone!"

"_You killed us. You killed us. You killed us._"

They were moving closer, and she seemed to shrink in upon herself in an attempt to get away. Her eyes were wide with panic, and she whipped her head around.

"Stop it! Go away! Go away! Go _away_!"

There was a sound of footsteps coming closer, and then out of the corner of my eye, I saw a glowing green light. It soared towards the girl, and it knocked her off of me, throwing her into the spirits a second before they vanished into the air.

My friends were rushing towards me, with Annona in the lead, hands glowing with green energy.

The messy-haired girl lay still, and I collapsed back on the ground, breathing heavily.

It was all over.


	22. Home

I should just stop making promises that I clearly cannot keep. I apologise for the hiatus. In my defence, I started university, and I can't say that that allows for a lot of free time.

We're almost at the end now. This is technically the last chapter, though I have already started on an epilogue which I hope to have uploaded within the next week.

**Review Replies**

K-LA V. LANDSHARK: Thank you so much! I'm honestly flattered by the fact that you like the Witch Princess as a character, given that I really put my own twist on her in the story. Thank you so much for reviewing and I'm so glad you've enjoyed this.

**Disclaimer**: I will never own _Harvest Moon__. _

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**Chapter 22**

**Home**

The silence rang in my ears, broken only by soft gasps of breath and the sound of my own, erratic heartbeat. I turned my head, feeling the dirt brush against my cheek, and the first thing I saw was Sammie, who had come to my side and was sitting, looking down at me with large, round eyes. My lips pulled into a faint smile, and I reached up slowly, scratching the side of her neck.

_Okay? _I asked, feeling pain shoot to my head as I did, though it wasn't as severe as it had been inside the hut.

She pushed her head into my hand, and through the pain I heard her answer, _Wonderful. _

Muscles feeling stiff and heavy, it took some considerable difficulty to push myself up onto my elbow and look over Sammie's head to where the others stood. My eyes were immediately drawn to Mary, whose eyes were still glowing purple. Kai was holding her hands behind her back, and I could see her struggling against him, before Annona took a step over, into her field of vision. Annona's eyes glowed green, and I watched as Mary's became the same colour before the glow faded away completely, and her knees buckled, Kai supporting her until she was able to turn around, burying her face in between his neck and shoulder. I looked around for Ann, and it seemed Annona had already gotten to her – she was standing near Popuri and Cliff, looking a little dazed but, at least, in her own right mind.

"Is she… dead?" I heard Popuri murmur, and I followed her gaze to the crumpled form of the girl I had fought with for my life only moments earlier. She lay still, but I noticed the slight rise and fall of her chest before Annona spoke.

"No, not dead. She will drift in and out of consciousness for a few hours, but she will recover fully. She is much stronger than perhaps anyone you will ever meet."

"You know her?" Cliff asked, and Annona nodded her head.

"Her name is Rhiannon, or, as she'd prefer, the 'Witch Princess'." She paused, looking over the girl in question with an expression on her face that I couldn't quite identify, before she dropped her gaze to the ground. "She is my sister."

OoO

Not wanting to teleport anymore, for the sake of Kai's health, we walked slowly back towards the school. Annona carried her sister in her arms, and I couldn't help but notice how different the girl looked now, unconscious and fragile compared to the way she had looked not even hours before. I have to admit; I did worry about the fact that Annona had chosen to bring her back to the school, but we were not murderers and we couldn't have killed her, or left her in the forest to die. I chose to put my trust in Annona's decisions; if she believed that bringing the self-proclaimed Witch Princess back to the school grounds would not end up being a decision to regret, we would believe it too.

Kai carried Jill, who was yet to wake up. Annona had crouched over her before we had moved, checking her pulse and placing a glowing hand over her chest for a moment, before withdrawing it and saying that she would wake in time and needed to be taken to the infirmary. We all did; though Jill was in the worst state, not one of us seemed to be without injuries.

There was a small crowd waiting for us outside of the school when we arrived – Headmaster Maynor, Keria, and a few teachers and nurses who were waiting ready with stretchers for Jill and Rhiannon (though Annona had to talk quietly to one of them before the teacher agreed to take the latter in). Keria pulled me aside before I joined the group to head to the infirmary, putting a hand on my arm.

"I cannot feel Jill's mind," she explained in a hushed tone, gaze flickering over to the girl on the stretcher before looking back to me. "I know she's alive, which means it is most likely magically induced. Do you have any idea what could be the cause of it?"

"There was a potion," I told her. "I think it was designed to steal their powers. I had a dose of it as well."

Keria looked thoughtful for a moment, before murmuring, "Close your eyes. If you'll allow me to search your mind I may be able to find out what she used so we may find the antidote."

I nodded my head and closed my eyes, and I felt Keria's forehead touch mine. The sensation in my mind that followed was strange, though not entirely unfamiliar – I was used to having thoughts projected into my mind, so having someone else inside of it, searching it, merely felt like a more extreme version of that.

I could see the path inside my mind that Keria followed, and I was able to guide her, to some extent, as she searched back through my memories, through the forest and the hut, to the few tense moments where I lay inside the cauldron, convinced that I was going to die. Keria brought her fingers up to press against my temples, and the memory came into focus, so much clearer than before. I was aware of things I had not been aware of in my fear at the time, like the smell of the potion. Keria lingered on this memory for a few moments before pushing away from it again, travelling through my mind to the memory of the Witch Princess trying to inject me with the potion. Again, she studied this memory closely, before withdrawing from my mind completely and taking a step back.

I opened my eyes and she offered me a faint smile, projecting a _Thank you _into my mind before she hurried away, back into the hall, and I followed after the group headed to the infirmary.

OoO

Annona and her unconscious sister both disappeared to a separate part of the infirmary as soon as we arrived, and one of the nurses wheeled Jill's stretcher away as well. I went to follow, but she told me to stay back until they had had the chance to properly look her over, and until I had had my own injuries checked as well.

Jill was clearly top priority, as the rest of us were left alone for at least ten or fifteen minutes. The group of us sat down on the edges of two of the unoccupied beds nearby, facing each other though none of us seemed to want to break the silence that we had fallen into. Sammie sat by my feet, nuzzling her head into my leg, and on the floor nearby, clearly keeping away from the dog, was Rick, who was still in his chicken form. I reached out with my mind experimentally, but decided I couldn't deal with the pain, and quickly gave up. The silence stretched between us, interrupted only by the usual noises of the infirmary – footsteps, quiet murmurs of the nurses and the like.

I reached down and stroked my fingertips over Sammie's head, losing myself in the soft feel of her fur and the way she leaned against my leg. I'd almost lost her only a matter of days ago, and it one of the most terrifying experience of my life. To feel her resting against me, alive as we all were, was more relieving than I could say.

The nurse came to us eventually, coming to each of us individually to heal our injuries. Ann's roommate, Elli, came up to the infirmary as the nurse was healing the bruising on my face, saying that she was a healer training to become a nurse and wanted to help. She healed Ann first (once she was done hugging her tightly), and then she and the nurse both worked their way around to everyone else in the group.

I sat with Sammie by my side, once the nurse was done, watching the movement in the infirmary absently. I saw Elli and the nurse go around and heal every visible injury on everyone's body; Elli was slower than the nurse, but she was clearly a great help. I saw Keria come in carrying a thick book, making her way swiftly towards the opposite end of the infirmary. I watched the other nurses talk amongst each other, moving about the room to find things in drawers and in cupboards. Though the situation mustn't have been one they were completely familiar with, it was clear that they were still running by some sort of routine, all aware of what they had to do. It was strange, really, to think that, after everything that had happened in the past few days, people could still run by familiar routines and schedules to take care of the aftermath. It was almost a comfort, too. The world kept turning; we would all get through.

The nurse had just finished healing Kai, who was the last to be taken care of, when Keria and Annona walked over. Keria was still carrying the large book, which I realised was a potion book.

"How's Jill?" I asked, once Annona was within hearing distance.

"She will be fine," the head girl answered. "She will wake up naturally, and then we will be able to administer the antidote. Those of you who need it will take it as soon as it's ready."

"When will that be?" asked Ann, playing with her hair.

"It shouldn't take more than a few hours. It is not a simple potion, but I'm aware that some of you have demonstrated impressive ability when it comes to potion making." She looked at the group of us, and smiled softly, eyes crinkling at the corners. "Perhaps you'd like to help."

I glanced at Kai, Cliff and Popuri out of the corner of my eyes, and smiled. "I'm sure we can do that."

Mary put her hand on mine, squeezing lightly, and I looked around at the faces of my friends. Despite everything that had happened in the last few days, they were smiling, faintly but sincerely. We were safe. We were home.


	23. Epilogue

Will have long, cheesy author's note at the end.

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**Disclaimer****: **_Harvest Moon _is not mine.

* * *

**Chapter 23**

**Epilogue **

Normality began to return to our lives slowly, before falling back into place so suddenly that we hardly realised it was happening. Although I'm sure I wasn't the only one who spent a few nights waking up having nightmares of spirits and witches and of losing the people I loved, the entire fiasco didn't take long to start to feel like a dream itself, or perhaps another life. The entire experience was so surreal; it didn't take long for it to begin to feel like it wasn't real at all.

Compared to the anti-hypnosis potion, the antidote was simple, only taking a few hours to make, and having Annona to help certainly sped up the process. Taking the potion was not so pleasant. I had it the easiest, only needing one dose, but even that was enough to leave me feeling exhausted, wandering around like a zombie for a day. Mary and Ann were in bed for a week, and although the potion allowed Rick to return to his human form, he spent a good few days being violently ill.

Annona made another potion at the same time, this one to be given to Rhiannon, whom they had been keeping in a medically induced coma to protect the school. This potion was similar to the potion that Rhiannon had given to us, only it drained her powers without giving them to the maker of the potion. I watched from my window the second night after our return, as Annona escorted Rhiannon to the edge of the school grounds. Perhaps the two met someone there to escort Rhiannon away, perhaps to arrest her or take her to somewhere where she couldn't harm anyone, but I could never know for certain, because I couldn't see the edge of the campus from my window, and it was never my place to ask.

Classes resumed for the rest of the school a week later, but, as the teachers made almost painfully clear, the group of us were not expected to attend if we did not feel ready. We all started to go to classes again at our own paces – Mary started immediately, despite the bags under her eyes and the fact that she almost fell asleep in her lunch, and Ann and Rick both took another few days off to recover. Cliff, Kai and I returned to classes at the same time as Mary, but I did use the opportunity to get out of _History of Heroes_ a few times during the first week back in classes, instead using that time for a much better reason – visiting my cousin in the infirmary.

I'd been beyond worried when, a full week after we'd made it back to the school, Jill had still not woken up – even if Ann or Mary had been unconscious and merely couldn't remember it as a result of the hypnosis, they couldn't have been out for more than a day, and Jill had been out for at least a week. Annona had reassured me, however, that certain long-term potions like the one that Jill and the others had been given could have very different side-effects, depending on a number of factors, such as health, diet and genetic make-up. She'd check over Jill every day to help reassure me, using her powers to check her vital signs, and she promised that, other than her unconsciousness, Jill was perfectly fine and would awake.

Nonetheless, the fact that Jill was in a coma was enough to worry a number of the students in our grade, and every time I went to visit her there seemed to be a new present or bunch of flowers sitting by her bed.

During the second _History of Heroes _class that I skipped, when I went up to visit her, I realised I wasn't the only one who had been skipping classes to sit by her bedside. To my surprise, Gray had been there by the time I arrived, sitting in the chair beside her bed. He had smiled at me when I came in.

"I never got the chance to tell you," he had said, once I had managed to pull up a chair and seat myself on the other side of the bed, "I think what you guys did was really brave. You're heroes, you know?"

Silence had stretched between us as we looked over the unconscious girl on the bed. I had taken hold of her hand, positioning my fingers so that I could feel her pulse – the steady reminder that she was alive, even though she didn't look it. Gray had kept his hands to himself until a breeze from the open window blew a few strands of her hair into her face, and he reached forward to tuck them back behind her ear.

Feeling weirdly disconnected, I had said, "You like her, don't you?"

He looked between me and Jill for a moment, before ducking his head.

I wouldn't say that it didn't hurt, but it didn't hurt in the way I would have thought it would, had you told me a month ago that the guy I liked was interested in my cousin. It was as if the entire adventure had matured me suddenly; my attraction to Gray was fleeting and almost childish, even though it certainly felt real, but finding that the feeling was unrequited wasn't something that would cause a broken heart. Perhaps coming so close to losing the people I loved had made me realise how important they were to me, and I to them, and that was more important than any other silly, little relationship.

Jill returned to the world of the living three days after that, and I was honestly happy for her when she told me a few weeks later that Gray had asked her out.

Just like that, we were normal again. We went from fearing for our lives to fearing for the upcoming exams, from sleeping in a forest to sleeping in our own beds, or occasionally on the floor of another's room so we could to gossip and tell secrets, from planning ways to defend ourselves to planning ways to take revenge on students who had played innocent pranks on us. The memories of those terrifying days would stick with us forever, but we weren't trapped in them, unable to move on or enjoy life as we should.

Mary confessed to me one afternoon, a good couple of months after our return, that Kai had asked her out only shortly after the entire event, and that they'd agreed to take it slow and see where it goes, keeping their relationship a secret to avoid any unwanted attention, just in case it didn't last. She told me that I was her best friend, and that she trusted me with her life, and also that he had kissed her for the first time earlier that day, and she had to tell someone. Her eyes seemed to sparkle and her cheeks turned pink, and I remember thinking that maybe one good thing could come from life-threatening situations – it made you realise exactly how much you cared about someone.

I ended up having some sort of romance in my life myself, though not quite a relationship. On my birthday, near the end of the school year, I found a letter from a 'secret admirer' under my pillow, telling me that the writer of said letter cared about me very much and was immensely glad to have met me. I don't think Cliff realises exactly how easily recognisable his handwriting is.

My nightmares became fewer and further between, until it got to the point where they hardly existed at all. The last one I can remember is the clearest, and looking back on it, it wasn't really a nightmare. I'd opened my eyes, and in the darkness of my bedroom, there was a spirit of a dog floating in the air. I'd shot upright in fear, but then I met its eyes, and I realised that it didn't look frightening; its eyes didn't seem so lifeless and empty.

In my head, I heard the words, _Thank you_.

After that, I didn't dream of the spirits again.

Despite everything that we'd been through, despite the powers we were born with, we were still normal teenagers. We loved and we hated, felt joy and felt hurt, stayed up all night to finish assignments that we were supposed to have started weeks ago and cried when we failed our _History of Magic _exam (though perhaps I did deserve that). We had days where we felt downright miserable and didn't want to get out of bed and days where we felt happy enough to sing, we learnt and studied and attended classes, and occasionally we held potions lessons in the empty astronomy tower because certain pink haired females accidentally blew up the potion room.

Well, okay, maybe we weren't normal, but we were as normal as a group of entirely not-normal teenagers could get, and when all is said and done, that's nothing short of perfect.

* * *

And we're done. It's probably about time, too, given I started this story when I was fifteen years old, and I'm now eighteen and have just finished my first term at university. You can see it in my writing, particularly in between the third and fourth chapters - I have grown heaps and while I won't say my writing style is good, it's definitely better than it used to be. I've considered going back and re-writing the first three chapters, but I've decided against it. I'll keep it up there for the sake of this story to be a demonstration in the change in my writing style over the last three years.

As well as the change in my writing style, I have changed a lot over the last three years, as I'm sure you can expect. I will always have a soft spot for _Harvest Moon_, and I will readily admit to going back and playing the games when I have the chance, however, I will no longer be writing for it. I was not aware that this story would be my last in this fandom when I started it, but it seems now that it will be. I suppose, however, that this is a nice way to go out, with a piece of writing I'm not ashamed of.

Writing for _Harvest Moon _has been fantastic for me; it gave me characters with very basic developments to work with, allowing me to play around with plotlines and settings and relationships and interactions between different characters. Out of all the fanfiction I've written, I think _Harvest Moon _is the most responsible for the improvement in my writing, and I will always remember it fondly. Now, however, it is my time to move on. I will still be writing fanfiction (keep an eye out for _Glee _and _Sherlock_), but not for this game.

To everyone who has read this story, who has stuck with me through spontaneous and seemingly endless hiatuses, and most of all, to those of you who have taken the time to review, to tell me where I'm going wrong and help me to improve or even to just leave a kind word that has brightened my day, I cannot thank you enough. You are all wonderful people, and if I never hear from you all again, I want you to know that I wish every happiness upon you.

And now, my friends, it is time to say goodbye. Thank you again, for everything.


End file.
